ABSTRACT
The National Security Act of 1947, with its new organization of the Defense area, as well as its creation of the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency, was the end result of an extended process of study, review, debate, and legislative enactment. This chapter focuses on the development of Central Intelligence Agency to its present state. The organizational arrangements for carrying out assigned missions are not unusual, except in the case of tasks that are not common to other governmental organization. Organizations change with requirements and with the perceptions of new management. Tasks come and go, and for the most part are handled within the basic organization. Intelligence organizations seek the cooperation of all types of individuals who may help achieve some difficult objective. Whatever the standards of those people—and they vary widely—the regular employees of the intelligence agencies must have a degree of stability and dependability materially above the standards set for agents.
