Early days of US Intelligence

Early days of US Intelligence
World War I began the modern era of code breaking and intelligence gathering. Major Ralph Van Deman, the “father of American Intelligence” created the Military Intelligence Section in the Army General Staff and a Cipher Bureau (MI-8) within this section.

However, it was World War II that provided a significant and visible victory for military intelligence agencies and laid the groundwork for what eventually became the CIA and the National Security Agency (NSA).

One larger than life personality defining the early history of US intelligence agencies was William “Wild Bill” Donovan. Although was a successful lawyer, and would later become assistant attorney general during the Hoover Administration. He enlisted in the army just before the United States entered World War I.

He would distinguish himself through two world wars as the only American to have received out nation’s four highest awards: The Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal and the National Security Medal.

During World War II, President Roosevelt appointed Donovan to create an intelligence service, and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) began in June 1942.

Under Donovan’s leadership, the OSS collected and analyzed information needed by the Joint Chief of Staff to conduct clandestine operations that were not carried out by other federal agencies or the military.

After the war, the agency became a civilian organization that would coordinate global intelligence gathering and execute operations under the banner of the CIA.

The NSA is the US intelligence agency within the DoD that is responsible for cryptographic security and signals intelligence.

The NSA grew out of the communication intelligence activities of US military units during World War II. The origins of the NSA can be traced to an organization originally established within the DoD , under the command of the Joint Chief of Staff as the Armed Forces Security Agency (AFSA), on May 20, 1949.

The creation of the NSA was authorized in a letter written by President Harry S. Truman in June 1952 (although the letter was classified and remained unknown to the public for more than a generation).

The NSA, although not a creation of Congress, is still subject to congressional review, even though it is one of the most secret of all US intelligence agencies. Its director is a military officer of flag rank, a general or admiral.
Early days of US Intelligence

Pentagon

Pentagon
Pentagon, headquarters for the Department of Defense and of the army, the navy and the air force.

Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Department of War and the Department of the Navy were housed at the President’s right hand, in what is now known as Eisenhower Executive Building at 17th and Pennsylvania in Washington.

Planners decided to bring the War and Navy Departments and 15 other military agencies together in one place for the sake of efficiency. The building they designed is remarkable even 60 years later.

Located in Arlington, Virginia across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C, the Pentagon is a five story, five sided building.

Covering an area of thirty-four caress and 3.7 million square feet of office space it is one of the largest offices building in the world.

It is twice as large as the Merchandise Mart in Chicago and has three times the office space of Empire State Building in New York.

Completed in 1943, it is though to be one of the most efficient office buildings in the world.

Despite 17.5 miles of corridors it takes only seven minutes to walk between any two points in the building.

Working within this famous building is a very large number of employees with great talent, resilience, and dedication.

Most insiders refer to the Pentagon simply as the “Building” or a more affectionately as the Puzzle Palace.

One side of the Pentagon was damaged by the September 11, 2001, Terrorist Attack when a hijacked airplane was intentionally crashed into building

The crash and subsequent fore killed 184 people, including the passengers and crew of the jetliner.

The attack was coordinated with similar one on the twin towers of the World Trade Center.
Pentagon

East Turkestan Republic

East Turkestan Republic
East Turkestan in modern Xinjiang has nothing to do historically with West Tujue or East Tujue. The term “East Turkestan” was first used by Russian scholars in the eighteenth century to describe the Central Asian areas belonging to China.

The Central Asian region proper was called West Turkestan – the area of Central Asia that later belonged to Russia. Such is the origin of the modern concept of “East Turkestan.”

Thus “East Turkestan” refers neither to an ethnic group nor to a country; hence it has no ethnic or national historical foundation.

In the early morning hours of November 7, 1944, Moslem Turks in China’s far northwestern province of Xinjiang attacked the Chinese garrison stationed in Yining, the principal city of the Ili valley near Sino-Soviet border.

Despite the fact that Moslem rebels were, at the outset vastly outnumbered by the Chinese troops they quickly gained effectively control of the city and within days had succeeded in forcing the Chinese into the confines of their main headquarters, the local airfield barrack, and a temple on the outskirts of the town.

Secure in their expectation of ultimate victory the Moslems declared the establishment of the East Turkestan Republic in November 12, 1944.

This new Moslem state’s declared objectives were to establish freedom and democracy for Islamic peoples of the Turk’s ancient homeland and to oust all Chinese from the whole of what they referred to as Turkestan, the Chinese province of Xinjiang.

By 1945, the military forces of the East Turkestan Republic had successfully driven Chinese troops from all towns and border posts in the three north westernmost districts of the province.

The troops pushed as far east as the Manas Rivers and were poised for an advance that would have taken them to the very gates of the provincial capital itself.

Hurried diplomatic activity and a personal appeal to the Moslems by Chiang Kai-shek led to negotiations between representatives of the independent three districts and the Chinese central government, which resulted in a peace agreement, signed by both sides in 1946.

The provisions of the Peace Agreement of 1946 – which might have led to real reform on the local level – were not fully implemented.

A major reason for this was the interference on civil government by the local Chinese military establishment on Xinjiang.
East Turkestan Republic