Let’s Learn about the Cold War: Part 11 – The CIA

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Sean D. Smith
  • Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  After World  War II, America's approach to intelligence gathering was heavily modeled after the British Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6. Before the Central Intelligence Agency came the Office of Strategic Services, but the OSS was done away with after World War II ended.

In 1947 the National Security Act was signed, and both the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency were formed.

The CIA's role was and is the collection of data relevant to national security. During the Cold War, the CIA conducted espionage for the larger objective of resisting communist expansion and strengthening the West.

In the early days of the Cold War, the CIA was a new organization in a world of changing technology and unstable geopolitics. The CIA was meant to be an answer to Soviet intelligence services, which were older and more developed.

The Korean War was the first real test of the CIA, but the agency wasn't able to get much done thanks to a lack of Korean-speaking CIA officers and poor leadership. The agency attempted subversive operations when China entered the war but with no success.

American intelligence efforts in Europe did little better; the CIA failed to acquire meaningful information on Soviet satellite nation takeovers, the blockade in Berlin and the Soviet atomic bomb project. Though China's support of North Korea had been predicted by the military, in intelligence circles it came as a surprise. During those early years, the CIA would be compromised several times by double agents and Soviet spies.

Espionage is secretive by nature, and the best intelligence operations are ones that go completely unnoticed. Intelligence failures are sometimes well-documented, but CIA victories are secret by definition. Still, the CIA had no shortage of stumbles early on.

The agency found its legs as the Cold War went on, carrying out operations around the world and helping the cause of anti-communist propaganda.

Over the years the CIA was used in an increasingly offensive capacity, which attracted a measure of controversy over topics like torture, assassination, extraordinary rendition, and providing weapons and training to forces who would go on to target non-combatants.

The CIA continues to gather and analyze intelligence today.

During the Cold War, one particular icon of intelligence gathering and air power was the U-2 spy plane which was used extensively by the CIA, leading to another key moment in the war when a U-2 was shot down over the Soviet Union.

Next time: The 1960 U-2 Incident