The historical antipathy to intelligence is now part of the political
culture and still affects the American psyche. The history of U.S. intel-
ligence can be broken down into three historical periods. The first pe-
riod spans the nascent years just before the onset of the Revolutionary
War in 1776 until the end of the Civil War in 1865 and can best be de-
scribed as one during which intelligence remained largely in the back-
ground, providing services to individual decision makers—particularly
to military commanders or specific presidents—who wanted to avail
themselves of its services but rejected the notion of having a formal and
centralized intelligence establishment. The second period, from 1865
until the end of World War II in 1945, was one of transition, in which
the United States, an emerging power in world politics, made piecemeal
and largely unsuccessful attempts to establish an ongoing and perma-
nent intelligence capability. The third period, spanning the years 1945
until the present, is the one in which the United States developed a per-
manent, professional, and civilian intelligence apparatus that took into
account American unease with intelligence while bowing to the realities
of the modern world, such as the Cold War and the more complicated
global environment that followed it.Nascent Period, 1776–1865Intelligence—both the capability and the services it provides—is a
tool available to presidents for use in conducting foreign policy. Prece-
dents for presidential use of intelligence were set early in the history of
the United States, beginning with the Sons of Liberty organizations that
were created in 1775 to bring patriots together in common cause and to
gather information against the British foe. These organizations later
were transformed into the Committees of Correspondence, which acted
as the first American intelligence agencies. The Continental Congress
incorporated the Committees of Correspondence into its legislative
structure and then evolved them into the House Committee on Foreign
Affairs, which until World War II was the principal congressional com-
mittee responsible for overseeing American foreign relations.
During the Revolutionary War, General George Washington ran his
own spy group—the Culper Ring—and successfully laid down princi-
ples governing intelligence secrecy and the provision of secret funding
of intelligence. By the time Washington became president, the young
United States already had a hero in the person of Nathan Hale, whoseINTRODUCTION• xli05-398 (1) FM.qxd 10/20/05 6:14 AM Page xli