Central Intelligence Agency

The United States has carried out intelligence activities since the days of George WashingtonGeorge WashingtonGeorge Washington (1732–1799) was the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. Earlier he commanded the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1787.Open the full entry, but they were coordinated government-wide only from World War II onward. In July 1941 Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. RooseveltFranklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) was an American politician who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 to 1945, the only president elected four times; he led the country through the Great Depression and World War II and greatly expanded the federal government’s role through the New Deal.Open the full entry appointed William J. Donovan the first Coordinator of Information, which the CIA describes as the nation’s first peacetime, non-departmental intelligence organization.⁠[1]

On June 13, 1942, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was established under William “Wild Bill” Donovan as the first centralized U.S. intelligence agency, with a mandate to collect and analyze strategic information; the CIA regards it as its forerunner.⁠[2][1]

On October 1, 1945, Harry S. TrumanHarry S. TrumanHarry S. Truman (1884–1972) was an American politician who served as a U.S. senator from Missouri and as vice president in 1945, succeeding Franklin D. Roosevelt on his death that year and serving as the 33rd president of the United States from 1945 to 1953, a period spanning the end of World War II and the early Cold War.Open the full entry abolished the OSS; its branches merged into the Strategic Services Unit (SSU), and its functions passed to the State and War Departments. Earlier, on November 18, 1944, Donovan had sent Roosevelt a memo on a permanent centralized intelligence service.⁠[2][1][3]

On January 22, 1946, Truman’s executive letter established the National Intelligence Authority and the Central Intelligence Group (CIG), and Rear Admiral Sidney Souers became the first to hold the title Director of Central Intelligence (DCI).⁠[2][3]

On April 29, 1947, Hoyt S. Vandenberg gave a statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee supporting the national security legislation. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 on July 26, 1947, establishing the CIA and charging it with coordinating the nation’s intelligence activities and correlating, evaluating and disseminating intelligence affecting national security.⁠[1][3]

The CIA formally came into existence on September 18, 1947, as an independent, civilian agency, with Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter as its first leader. The Central Intelligence Agency Act, signed in 1949, allowed the CIA to fund operations secretly and to set personnel procedures outside standard government practice.⁠[2][1]

Construction at Langley began in May 1959. On November 3, 1959, Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight D. EisenhowerDwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) was an American army general and politician who served as supreme commander of Allied forces in western Europe during World War II and as the 34th president of the United States, a Republican, from 1953 to 1961.Open the full entry laid the cornerstone of the Original Headquarters Building (OHB) with Director of Central Intelligence Allen Dulles present; the ceremony was mostly symbolic, and the box and cornerstone were removed for safekeeping and permanently installed more than a year later. Construction was completed in 1961 and officers began moving in during 1962; the box holds unclassified items including Donovan’s memo and a reproduction of the CIA seal with its official description.⁠[3]

In March 1960 Dwight D. Eisenhower directed the CIA to develop a plan to invade Cuba and overthrow the Fidel Castro regime. With a budget of $13 million the CIA recruited 1,400 Cuban exiles to form Brigade 2506, trained and funded as the armed wing of the Democratic Revolutionary Front; John F. KennedyJohn F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy (1917–1963) was an American politician who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 to 1963. The youngest person elected president and the first Roman Catholic to hold the office, he was assassinated in Dallas on November 22, 1963.Open the full entry approved the invasion after his election in November 1960.⁠[4][5]

On April 15, 1961, six Cuban-piloted B-26 bombers struck Cuban airfields and military bases; late on April 16 Kennedy canceled the second air strike. Brigade 2506 landed at the Bay of Pigs on April 17 and was defeated within two days by Cuban forces under Castro’s direct command; more than three-quarters of its members ended up in Cuban prisons, and four CIA contract pilots died while dropping supplies. The CIA’s article states that the operation would end the career of Allen Dulles, the longest-serving Director of Central Intelligence.⁠[5][4]

In May 1961 Kennedy set up a committee under General Maxwell Taylor and Attorney General Robert F. KennedyRobert F. KennedyRobert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) was an American politician and lawyer, a Democrat who served as U.S. attorney general and as a U.S. senator from New York; he was assassinated in Los Angeles in 1968 while seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.Open the full entry to examine the defeat, and in November 1961 the administration decided on a new covert program, Operation Mongoose, aimed at removing Castro.⁠[4]

On October 14, 1962, Air Force Major Richard D. Heyser flew a U-2 reconnaissance mission over western Cuba; the 928 photographs taken during the six-minute flight provided the first verified evidence of Soviet offensive missile sites in Cuba. At 8:30 p.m. on October 15, CIA Deputy Director Marshall S. Carter informed McGeorge Bundy of the MRBM evidence. That month the administration suspended Operation Mongoose as the Soviet missile threat emerged, leading to the Cuban Missile Crisis.⁠[6][4]

In 1974 Seymour Hersh published a front-page article in The New York Times claiming that the CIA had spied on anti-war activists for more than a decade. On January 27, 1975, the Senate voted 82–4 to create a select committee chaired by Frank Church to investigate the CIA, the Federal Bureau of InvestigationFederal Bureau of InvestigationThe Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the federal investigative agency of the U.S. Department of Justice. It grew out of a force of special agents organized by Attorney General Charles J. Bonaparte in 1908, has used its present name since 1935 and is headquartered in Washington, D.C.Open the full entry, the IRS and the NSA. The committee held 126 full committee meetings and 40 subcommittee hearings, interviewed about 800 witnesses and reviewed 110,000 documents, and on April 29, 1976, issued a final report with 96 recommendations, concluding that “there is no inherent constitutional authority for the President or any intelligence agency to violate the law.”⁠[7]

Outcomes of the inquiry included the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, established by Senate Resolution 400 in 1976, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which became law in 1978; Executive Order 12036 of 1978 set new guidelines for intelligence activities and was revoked in 1981.⁠[7]

In 1999 the CIA headquarters compound was renamed the George Bush Center for Intelligence in honor of George H. W. BushGeorge H. W. BushGeorge H. W. Bush (1924–2018) was an American politician who served as a Navy pilot in World War II and worked in the oil business before holding posts including U.S. representative, ambassador to the United Nations and director of the Central Intelligence Agency; he was vice president from 1981 to 1989 and the 41st president of the United States from 1989 to 1993.Open the full entry. The campus has been home to CIA staff since 1961.⁠[8]

The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of December 17, 2004, created the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and changed the role of the DCI; since then the Director of the CIA (D/CIA) has overseen the agency’s collection, analysis and covert action. The DNI’s organization is the Office of the Director of National IntelligenceOffice of the Director of National IntelligenceThe Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is an independent U.S. federal agency established under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. Led by the Director of National Intelligence, it leads and integrates the U.S. Intelligence Community of 18 agencies and organizations.Open the full entry.⁠[2]

Director John Brennan launched a modernization initiative in March 2015 and ordered the agency reorganized into mission centers. On October 1, 2015, the Directorate for Digital Innovation began operations, the first new CIA directorate since 1963, and ten mission centers not tied to any single directorate began operations the same day.⁠[9][2]

On January 23, 2025, John Ratcliffe was sworn in as the 25th Director of the CIA at a White House ceremony by Vice President JD VanceJD VanceJD Vance (born 1984) is an American politician and author, a Republican who served as a U.S. senator from Ohio and has been the 50th vice president of the United States since 2025.Open the full entry. He had served as the sixth Director of National Intelligence from May 2020 to January 2021 and, before that, for more than five years as the U.S. representative for TexasTexasTexas is a U.S. state in the south-central United States, with its capital at Austin and its largest city Houston. It was admitted to the Union on December 29, 1845, as the 28th state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 29,145,505 residents.Open the full entry’s 4th Congressional District.⁠[10][11]

As of November 2026, the CIA’s website lists John L. Ratcliffe as Director and Michael Ellis, sworn in on February 10, 2025, as Deputy Director. The Director is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate.⁠[11]

The CIA’s website lists five directorates, the Directorate of Analysis, the Directorate of Operations, the Directorate of Science and Technology, the Directorate of Mission Systems and the Directorate of Support, and eleven mission centers covering Africa; the Americas and counternarcotics; cyber intelligence; China; counterintelligence; counterterrorism; East Asia and the Pacific; Europe and Eurasia; the Near East; South and Central Asia; and weapons and counterproliferation. Its executive offices include Human Resources, Congressional Affairs, General Counsel, Military Affairs, Equal Employment Opportunity, Privacy and Civil Liberties, the Inspector General and Public Affairs.⁠[12]

Central Intelligence Agency: Official website: https://www.cia.gov/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

X: Public account: https://twitter.com/cia (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/central-intelligence-agency (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/cia (opens in a new window).⁠[2]