Trends in the Development of Intel after World War I - Assignment Example

Trends in the development of Intel after World War I The explosion of the US naval base on December 7, 1941, in Pearl Harbor was a wake-up call to the American military and security as a whole. It emphasized the need a having a unified command structure, as well as an intelligence system. The president and his aides strongly believed that the attack could have been averted if the departments and the commanders in charge of national security had shared their intelligence and coordinated their actions as a single entity.

Considering the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to have failed in its mandate, President Truman dissolved it in 1945. In its replacement, he established a Central Intelligence Group to monitor his incoming cables, as well as supervise the duties that were being conducted by the disbanded OSS. The need to have a central intelligence agency led to the increase in missions and capabilities of the CIG. It is worth noting that most of the oversight was conducted by a committee known as the National Intelligence Authority which was made up of Secretaries of War, Navy, and State, as well as the chief military adviser of the president.

The National Intelligence Authority played an integral role in ensuring that the unification process progressed on. Having thoughts of unifying the security system, the brains behind the National Security Act of 1947 strived to create a National Security Council, a Secretary of Defense, a Central Intelligence Agency, and a constitutional Joint Chiefs of Staff that was bound by the principles of unity of intelligence, and unity of command. The Act guaranteed that statutory Joint Chiefs of Staff would not use the Prussian style of leadership by creating an independent air force, and insisting that the CIA should not have a law enforcement mandate.

Additionally, the Act also dictated that the several divisions of intelligence within civilian departments and the armed forces would remain autonomous to the CIA.