The Fascinating History Of Military Espionage in the USA
Started against Britain and ended up in collaboration.
One fine day, my eyes caught one of the most important pieces of work on military intelligence “The Art of War” by Sun Tzu, an ancient Chinese book from the 6th century BC. Throughout the book, Sun Tzu, who is considered to be a military general (though many historians doubt his existence, nevertheless) stressed the need to understand the enemy as much as their own.
“One who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements.”
It is evident through the vast amount of ancient texts such as Arthashastra, Chanakya Nidi, The Art of War, etc., that espionage has been a part of military intelligence for a very long time. From ancient wars to world wars, espionage has been crucial for a nation’s victory. The knowledge from these works is still potent as it was in those times.
My curiosity piqued to know more about the development of intelligence agencies especially the Central Intelligence Agency, the world’s most powerful intelligence agency.
Modern Espionage
Military planning, as it is today with proper military budgets and bureaucracy started during the 18th century.
It was the period when almost every year saw some major war fought between countries. Intelligence agencies and spies were well paid. The sophistication improved gradually over time and by the 20th century when World Wars happened, intelligence agencies were more mature with practices embracing state-of-the-art science and technology.
Three major countries that developed their espionage system during that period were France, the British, and the USA. This story focuses exclusively on the development of espionage services in the USA.
To understand the motivation behind why they did so, it is imperative to know the wars and battles fought during that time period.
In the 18th century, the American Revolution (1775–1783) was fought between the 13 British North American Colonies and the British.
The then American Commander-in-Chief George Washington, who later became the First President of the United States of America, is hailed as the “America’s first Spymaster” for his intelligent planning to develop espionage system to track British plans.
He was instrumental in forming Culper Spy Ring, a spy ring to fetch information from the British occupied New York. It played a crucial role in winning the war, getting independence from the British colonists, and thereby forming the USA.
In the 19th century, the Civil War took place which was fought between two sections of the USA: the Union, northern states and the Confederacy, seven southern states which seceded from the United Statest.
Both sides developed their spy network to gather information from the other base. Two men played a crucial role: Allan Pinkerton, who served as the head of Union Intelligence service, and Thomas Jordan, who played important role in creating the spy network for the Confederates.
After the Civil War, this knowledge would come handy for the USA to develop spy networks.
Now comes the 20th century: World war 1 was mostly fought between European countries and the US had a neutral stand till 1917. In 1917, when the German navy units attacked and destroyed the US shipments in the Atlantic, the US participated in world war 1 and played a key role in ensuring the Allies' victory.
World War II was different. It was global in its scale. Although the war started with Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland, several things led to one another. In 1941, Japan attacked the Pearl Harbor, an America naval base which provoked the USA to declare war against Japan. Germany, being an Axis partner of Japan, hence declared war against the USA.
The then US President Franklin D Roosevelt (D-New York) was worried about America’s lack of an intelligence service which hindered the coordination among the army, navy, and the other agencies. FDR appointed attorney General William J. Donovan, who had great knowledge about the intelligence services, to form the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in collaboration with British Secret Intelligence Service MI-6.
An agreement was signed with Britain to share their duties and responsibilities. Britain took Europe as its responsibility while OSS took China and North Africa. This collaboration helped a great way to infiltrate Germany and destroy its infrastructure.
After the war, OSS was renamed athe CIA — Central Intelligence Agency. The agreement to work in tandem still holds water and it is even referred to as ‘Intelligence Special Relationship’ between the United States and Britain.
About the author:
Shashwath Sriram is a Postgraduate student of Statistics who is a pupil of a cluster of things such as History, Data Science, Music, Politics, and grey things in between.
