Historical Dictionary of United States Intelligence

efficacy and appropriateness” of U.S. intelligence activities in the

global environment of the post–Cold Warperiod. The commission

released its report on 1 March 1996, titled “Preparing for the 21st

Century: An Appraisal of U.S. Intelligence,” which examined the

entire range of intelligence issues, such as the size of the intelli-

gence community (IC), collection capabilities, organizations, over-

all structure, management, analysis, and oversight. The report also

addressed the proposal to give the director of central intelligence

(DCI) direct line control of the major Department of Defense

(DOD) intelligence agencies—the National Security Agency

(NSA), the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), and the Na-

tional Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA). In 1996, Congress

passed legislation providing the DCI with greater power to coordi-

nate the IC but declined to give him direct control.

COMMITTEE OF SECRET CORRESPONDENCE.Created on

29 November 1775, the Committee on Secret Correspondence car-

ried out intelligence activities for the Continental Congress, corre-

sponded with agents, and established precedents for secrecy in its

operations. The committee included numerous well-known Revo-

lutionary War figures, including Benjamin Franklinand James

Lovell, the latter becoming Congress’s expert on codes and ci-

phers, thereby earning him the sobriquet of “the father of Ameri-

can cryptology.”

The committee employed secret agents abroad, conducted covert

actions, devised codes and ciphers, funded propagandaactivities,

authorized the opening of private mail, acquired foreign publications

for analysis, and established a courier system.

On 17 April 1777, the Committee of Secret Correspondence was

renamed the Committee of Foreign Affairs, but kept its intelligence

function. Matters of diplomacy were conducted by other committees

or by the Congress as a whole. With the creation of a Department of

Foreign Affairs—the forerunner of the Department of State—on 10

January 1781, correspondence “for the purpose of obtaining the most

extensive and useful information relative to foreign affairs” was

shifted to the new body, whose secretary was empowered to corre-

spond “with all other persons from whom he may expect to receive

useful information.” See alsoHOUSE INTERNATIONAL RELA-

TIONS COMMITTEE; SONS OF LIBERTY.

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