Sociology

The United States has collected secret information since the Revolution, but there has been no unified government intelligence institution until the Second World War (Hamilton, 2007, p.8). Evidently, wars create a need for data and information about enemy forces to gain advantage and this is particularly telling about the origins of intelligence organizations. Intelligence techniques employed were out of tactical necessity and led to more developments in the practice of espionage.

Theoretically, what spawned intelligence networks during the American Revolutionary War was shared principles of liberty, leadership, love for country, honor and a sense of citizenship that drove former British colonies to unite. According to Andrew  Jeffreys-Jones (1997), new tactics, groups and strategies were energized by ideological enthusiasm and even idealism (p.2). Intelligence, then, was primarily to aid the Continental Army to fight the British.

This involved the creation of groups by the Second Continental Congress such as the Committee of Secret Correspondence and the Committee on Spies in 1775 out of a need to obtain intelligence of Enemys situation and numbers, George Washington wrote in a letter to an officer (1777). Information such as enemy strength and location was necessary for strategic purposes done with a strong prospect of Success (Washington, 1777). Washington, therefore, can be called one of the earliest forces and fathers of the craft, whose administration maintained the use of intelligence both in support of the United States and in drafting foreign policy (Johnson, 2007, p.213).

Gathered data were used for secret operations such as political and covert action carried out mainly by intelligence officers such as through trade of food for gun power (Central Intelligence Agency, 2007). Secret information was also found key to sabotage, deception operations, propaganda, and the hiring of foreign intelligence agents who have knowledge of British forces. Intelligence techniques were not only used for offensive operations or procurement, but also for defensive motives  namely for protection, cover, concealment, counterintelligence and communication interception. The success of the Republics intelligence operations paved the way to victories.

Peacetime used to be a reason for the cessation of the use and development of intelligence agencies and missions. Lapses and wrong intelligence also provided lessons to succeeding generations and administrations (Johnson, 2007, p.214).

U.S. intelligence organizations and missions, therefore, thrived in times of trouble, such as during the American Civil War when the Union and Confederate forces involved the press (like a form of process outsourcing) in providing and obtaining intelligence from the other side (p.214). Counterintelligence was found most useful to identifying pending attacks areas and timing. Bitter conflicts, indeed, demands for and tends to produce innovation in all things military (Andrew  Jeffreys-Jones, 1997, p.2) both in theory and in technology.

The latter part of the 1880s when increased foreign relations sometimes led to tension which made the United States dispatch its first US Naval Attach in London in 1882 to facilitate the flow of information (p.3). Sharing of information and intelligence techniques were found useful to strengthen alliances especially in the First World War, seen through the linking of technical intelligence innovations  between the US Navy and the Royal Navy.

The example of foreign intelligences made the United States realize some areas that are lagging  such as internal security from crime and decentralized intelligence bases. Until the Spanish-American War and the First World War, the US was behind other European forces in military and intelligence sophistication that it even angered the public. The US was forced to step up their game with MI-8 agency (later named Black Chamber) within the Army dedicated to tasks of decryption, decoding and providing codes (Johnson, 2007, p.216 Cantos, Crowell, Derodeff, Dunkel,  Cole, 2007). Its successes in intercepting Enemy traffic did not gain the trust and approval of President Hoover that budgets of intelligence agencies were significantly cut (p.217).