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When was the CIA formed?

Updated: 10/26/2022
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The creation of the U.S. Central Intelligence AGENCY was authorized by the National Security Act of 1947 (NSA), which authorized creation of the the new position 'Secretary of Defense' (instead of the former 'War'), the new National Security Council (NCS), and a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) - all signed into law by President Harry S. Truman on 26/07/1947 (26Jul1947). The second National Security Act of 1949, two years later, essentially defined the "Black-Ops" budget responsibility and authority for the U.S. intelligence community.

The CIA Agency structure was born in the earlier "Central Intelligence Group" (CIG) and, according to the CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence, the CIG became the Central Intelligence Agency on September 18, 1947.

EARLY PLAYERS AT CIG and CIA:

Before that date, two persons held the title 'Director-Central Intelligence (DCI)' which causes some confusion. First 'DCI' was a civilan Naval Reserve Admiral, Sidney Souers (5-months), a personal friend of President Truman, before he served as the first Executive Secretary of the National Security Council --- and the second 'DCI', then Army-Air Force Lt. Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg (18-months).

On 18Sep1947, former Navy Secretary James Forrestal became the first Secretary of Defense. The former U.S. Army-Air Force was split into two entities by the same congressional Act; creating a new "Dept of the Air Force". DCI Vandenberg left the CIG and became the first 'Air Force Chief of Staff'. He was replaced by the third 'Director-Central Intelligence' (but arguably the 'first' Director of the Central Intelligence Agency), U.S. Navy Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter a former intelligence officer on CNO Admiral King's staff; who was succeeded by Gen. Walter Bedell "Beatle" Smith on 7Oct1950, Truman's Ambassador to the Soviet Union and Gen. Eisenhower's former Chief of Staff during WW-II.

Smith appointed the very first 'Deputy Director-Central Intelligence (DDCI)', the well known New York attorney, William Harding Jackson. It should be noted that while Jackson was the first DDCI at the Agency. There was another Deputy Director of Central Intelligence at CIA's predecessor organization, the Central Intelligence Group. Brigadier General Edwin K. Wright, a former 9th Air Force briefing officer under then Major General Hoyt Vandenberg at Eagle-Tac forward headquarters in Luxembourg 1944-45, served as the first Acting DDCI at Group (CIG) under both Vandenberg and Hillenkoetter.

Further, General Omar N. Bradley, Vandenberg, then Colonel Wright, Colonel Jackson, Lt. Col. Rosengarten, Brigadier Genreral John Eisenhower (Ike's son) and Brigadier General Edwin L. Sibert had all served during WW-II at the same duty location at Eagle-Tac HQ in 1944 Luxembourg. There, Colonel William Harding Jackson worked with the cover-title Deputy Chief G-2 Intelligence for 12th Army Group.

In reality, Col. Jackson was the OSS/SSU X-2 Chief of Field Intelligence for the super-sceret X-2 section of the former Office of Strategic Services (OSS) involved in both counter-intelligence and counter-espionage. His deputy, Lt. Col. Dolph Rosengarten also working under cover on the 1st Army staff. The two men headed up field operations for the ULTRA program with direct connections to British SIS sections MI-5 and MI-6 and their covert Special Operations Executive.

Collectively, several of these men were grooming Sibert, former 12th Army Group Chief of G-2 Intelligence on Bradley's staff to become Deputy Director to replace Jackson at CIA in 1951. Sibert never got the chance. Instead, General Sibert, who was working on the CIG staff under Wright at the time, was rushed off to the Caribbean to train the Agressor Force for assault troops destined for MacArthur's sea-land invasion at Inchon, Korea during the Korean crisis. General Smith and Bill Jackson brought in Allen W. Dulles, former OSS X-2 Mission Chief at Bern, Switzerland (1944-45) to serve initially as CIA Deputy Director/Plans (covert ops). Both Dulles and Jackson had reported directly to Brigadier General William "Wild Bill" Donovan in the NYC HQ (and later, the Washington HQ) of the OSS during the war.

In 1951, Jackson returned to his position as Managing Director for the J.H. Whitney & Co in New York. Allen Dulles then succeeded Bill Jackson in the summer of 1951 as the second DDCI at the Agency under Gen. Smith and Truman, and later became Director of the Agency upon Smith's retirement in 1953-54.

In summary, essentially the same group of men led the U.S. intelligence effort throughout the four-years of WW-II and for another 15+ years at NSA & CIA under the National Security Acts of 1947 and 1949, until Director Dulles was relieved by JFK over the failed Bay of Pigs incident.

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the CIA was formed in Washington D.C. in 1947

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