Historical Dictionary of United States Intelligence

As the side rebelling against an established government, the Confed-

erates undertook more intelligence operations than the Union, engaging

in such covert actions as shipping arms and supplies to sympathizers,

guerrilla warfare, and sabotage. For example, Confederate president

Jefferson Davis created an intelligence operation that involved the

opening of a land route between Maryland and Virginia for the covert

movement of people and money to finance the South’s war effort. In ad-

dition, according to one account, the assassination of President Abra-

ham Lincoln was a Confederate covert operation, intended to kidnap

Lincoln and hold him hostage.

Transitional Period, 1865–1945

The Civil War was a watershed for U.S. intelligence, for it exposed

the risks of haphazard intelligence operations. The beginning of the

modern American intelligence structure can be traced to the period

immediately after the Civil War. Technological developments were

the main impetus for the growth of America’s nascent intelligence ap-

paratus, incorporating such techniques as collecting aerial intelligence

by means of surveillance balloons and other types of craft. Moreover,

innovations in the communications industry, such as the development

of the telegraph, sparked interest in encryption and decoding capabil-

ities. The navy established a permanent intelligence unit—the Office

of Naval Intelligence (ONI)—in 1882, and the army’s intelligence

unit—the Military Intelligence Division (MID)—came into being in

1885.

During the World War I, U.S. intelligence efforts were limited to sup-

porting the new American foreign policy doctrine of “open diplomacy,”

reflecting the openness that permeated the thinking of U.S. policymak-

ers at the time. To promote this new way of doing things, the State De-

partment assumed the responsibility of coordinating all intelligence in-

formation, an effort that lasted until 1927. Even though there is general

agreement that intelligence barely made an impression on policy lead-

ers, many precedents were set in these early years, including civilian

control of intelligence.

In the interwar years between 1918 and 1941, code making and code

breaking became important enterprises, involving the State Department,

the army, and the navy, all of which concentrated on breaking the codes

INTRODUCTION• xliii

05-398 (1) FM.qxd 10/20/05 6:14 AM Page xliii