Chronology

1945

12 April President Franklin D. Roosevelt dies in Warm Springs, Georgia; Vice

President Harry S. Truman takes the oath of office as President.

8 May Germany surrenders.

17 July The Potsdam Conference of the leaders of the United States, Great Brit

ain, and the Soviet Union convenes to discuss peace terms and the fate of

Germany.

6 August Atomic bomb is dropped on Hiroshima, Japan.

14 August Japan accepts Allied peace terms.

2 September World War II ends as Japan formally surrenders.

20 September Executive Order 9621 dissolves OSS, effective 1 October. The Research

and Analysis Branch is transferred to the Department of State; the espio

nage and counterintelligence branches become the Strategic Services Unit

under the War Department.

1946

22 January President Truman creates the Central Intelligence Group and appoints

RAdm. Sidney Souers the first Director of Central Intelligence.

15 February CIGs first Daily Summary is delivered to the President.

2 March Kingman Douglass becomes the first Deputy Director of Central Intelli

gence.

5 March Winston Churchill delivers his Iron Curtain speech in Fulton, MO.

May A three-year civil war breaks out in Greece; the Soviet Union supports

Communist guerrillas there through Albania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia.

10 June Lt. Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, US Army Air Forces, is sworn in as the

second Director of Central Intelligence.

11 July The Office of Special Operations is constituted under Donald Galloway

as the first Assistant Director for Special Operations. Schedules are drawn

up for merging SSU into CIG.

xli
17 July DCI Vandenberg argues for an independent budget for CIG at a meeting

of the National Intelligence Authority; the Authority agrees to help him

get one.

19 July The Office of Research and Evaluation (renamed Reports and Estimates

in November 1946) begins operations.

23 July ORE I analyzes Soviet foreign and military policy for President Truman.

28 July CIG formally takes control of the FBIs Latin American operations.

15 September Communist-dominated Bulgaria is proclaimed a peoples republic.

20 October SSU field personnel are transferred to the CIGs Office of Special Opera

tions (OSO).

5 November Congressional elections result in firm Republican majorities in both

Houses.

19 November Romanian voters endorse the Communist-dominated government after a

campaign of violence against the non-Communist opposition.

1947

19 January Polish Communists win a huge parliamentary majority in elections that

the United Kingdom and the United States declare to be in violation of

the Yalta agreement.

20 January Col. Edwin K. Wright replaces Kingman Douglass as Deputy Director of

Central Intelligence.

12 March In a message to Congress, President Truman announces the Truman Doc

trine of aid to nations threatened by Communism.

11 April SSU headquarters personnel are transferred to OSO.

1 May RAdm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter is sworn in as the third Director of Cen

tral Intelligence.

30 May A Communist-led coup renders Hungary a Soviet satellite.

5 June Secretary of State Marshall, speaking at Harvard, calls for a European

Recovery Program, soon dubbed the Marshall Plan.

7 July Moscow rejects the Marshall Plan.

xlii
26 July President Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947, which pro

vides for a National Security Council, Secretary of Defense, and Central

Intelligence Agency.

18 September The Central Intelligence Group becomes the Central Intelligence Agency

under the provisions of the National Security Act of 1947.

5 October The Communist Information Bureau (Cominform) holds its founding

meeting in Belgrade.

15 December DCI Hillenkoetter submits a draft of the Central Intelligence Agency Act

of 1949 to the Bureau of the Budget.

17 December In NSC 4-A, the National Security Council authorizes CIA to conduct

covert psychological warfare.

1948

12 February National Security Council Intelligence Directive (NSCID) 7 authorizes

CIA to collect foreign intelligence from American citizens with overseas

contacts.

25 February A Soviet-led coup in Czechoslovakia destroys that countrys remaining

anti-Communist leadership; concern mounts in Washington that the Com

munists might make big gains in the forthcoming Italian elections.

March Congress approves the Marshall Plan.

9 April Rioting outside the Organization of American States meeting in Bogota,

Colombia, endangers Secretary of State Marshall, prompting criticism of

CIA in Washington.

18 April Italys new Christian Democratic Party wins a sweeping victory in

national elections.

I May The Soviet Union defies the United Nations and establishes a peoples

republic in North Korea.

14 May Israel becomes an independent state.

18 June NSC 10/2 (which rescinds NSC 4-A) expands CIAs authority to conduct

covert action and gives a supervisory role to the Departments of State and

Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

19 June Congress reinstates the draft.

xliii
24 June Berlin blockade; Soviet authorities cut electricity and halt all land and

water traffic into West Berlin. The Berlin airlift begins.

28 June The Soviet-controlled Cominform denounces Tito and expels Yugoslavia.

1 September The Office of Policy Coordination, CIA, formally begins operations

under Frank Wisner.

2 November President Truman wins a stunning reelection victory over Governor

Thomas Dewey of New York, and Democrats regain majority control of

both Houses of Congress.

1949

January Allen Dulles, William Jackson, and Matthias Correa submit their survey

of CIA to the National Security Council; the report criticizes DCI

Hillenkoetter.

22 January Beijing, the capital of China, falls to the Communists.

4 April The North Atlantic Treaty is signed.

12 May The Soviets tacitly concede defeat and officially lift the Berlin blockade.

20 June President Truman signs the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949,

which specifies the powers and authority of the Director of Central Intel

ligence.

29 June US occupation forces complete their withdrawal from South Korea.

7 July The National Security Council approves NSC 50, which directs DCI Hill

enkoetter to make significant reforms in CIA as outlined in the Dulles

Jackson-Correa report.

21 July The Senate ratifies the North Atlantic Treaty, creating the North Atlantic

Treaty Organization.

5 August The United States halts aid to Chinas Nationalist government.

10 August President Truman signs a bill creating the Department of Defense and

expanding the powers of the Secretary of Defense.

23 September President Truman announces that the Soviet Union has successfully tested

an atomic bomb.

1 October The Peoples Republic of China is proclaimed in Beijing.

xliv
8 December Chinese Nationalist government is established on Taiwan.

1950

31 January President Truman authorizes development of a hydrogen bomb.

14 April President Truman submits the draft of NSC 68 (prepared under the super

vision of the Secretaries of State and Defense) to the National Security

Council and other departments for comments and estimates of its poten

tial cost. The draft advocates a large military buildup and a political and

ideological counteroffensive against the Soviet Union.

19 April State Department officials advise OPC to draft new and more ambitious

plans in expectation of formal approval of NSC 68.

15 May A reorganization of the Office of Policy Coordination consolidates its

sections into geographic-area divisions, laying the foundation for the

future structure of the Directorate of Plans.

25 June Communist North Korea invades South Korea; American forces engage

two days later.

5 August UN forces in South Korea are penned within the Pusan perimeter.

15 September General MacArthurs landing at Inchon shocks the North Korean Army;

UN forces break out of Pusan and begin racing toward the Chinese bor

der.

7 October Lt. Gen. Walter B. Smith is sworn in as the fourth Director of Central

Intelligence. William H. Jackson becomes Deputy Director for Central

Intelligence.

13 November The Office of Reports and Estimates is dissolved and superseded by

three new offices: the Office of Research and Reports, the Office of Cur

rent Intelligence, and the Office of National Estimates.

26 November In a large-scale intervention, Communist Chinese forces strike the flank

of MacArthurs advance into North Korea. MacArthur is forced to retreat.

16 December Korean war setbacks prompt President Truman to proclaim a state of

national emergency, which places CIA and other agencies on a six-day

workweek.

xlv
1951

4 January Allen Dulles assumes the new post of Deputy Director for Plans.

15 January The Office of Current Intelligence begins operations, publishing its allsource Current intelligence Bulletin.

25 January Communist forces led by Chinese troops reach their farthest southern

advance since their counteroffensive began in November. Allied forces

begin to push them slowly northward.

11 April President Truman relieves General MacArthur as commander of US

forces in Korea.

29 April Premier Mohammed Mossadeq nationalizes Irans oil industry.

8 May DCI Smith asks the NSC for a ruling on the scope and pace of CIA covert

operations.

25 May British Secret Intelligence Service officers and suspected spies Guy Bur

gess and Donald Maclean flee Great Britain to defect to the Soviet Union.

June Korean truce talks open. The battlefront stabilizes and there is little

change in the frontline until the end of the war.

23 June The Soviet Unions Ambassador to the United Nations tables a Korean

cease-fire proposal. Negotiations begin at Kaesong soon afterward but

proceed at a snails pace and finally break down altogether in August.

1 July DCI Walter Bedell Smith is promoted to General, US Army.

23 August Allen Dulles succeeds William Jackson as Deputy Director of Central

Intelligence; Frank Wisner is promoted to Deputy Director for Plans.

23 October NSC 10/5 expands CIAs authority to conduct covert action.

12 November New cease-fire talks begin at Panmunjon, Korea, after a series of UN

attacks.

1952

1 January Loftus Becker becomes the first Deputy Director for Intelligence.

1 August OPC and OSO are merged under Deputy Director for Plans Frank Wisner.

24 September Iran rejects Anglo-American oil settlement.

xlvi
October The stalled armistice talks at Panmunjon break off as the Communists

await the results of the American elections.

1 November The United States successfully tests its first H-bomb.

4 November Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower defeats Democrat Adlai Stevenson to win

election as President of the United States.

21 November President Truman says farewell to CIA in a speech to the Agencys

employees.

1953

20 January Harry Truman leaves office as President of the United States.

9 February WaIter Bedell Smith resigns as DCI and retires from the US Army to

become Under Secretary of State in the Eisenhower administration.

xlvii