Chronology

1765 Sons of Liberty, the first American dissident group, established.

1772 Beginning of organized resistance by the Patriots, in the form of Committees of Correspondence, against the British.

1775  29 November: Continental Congress establishes Committee of Secret Correspondence, headed by Benjamin Franklin, to gather secret intelligence.

1776  April: Committee of Secret Correspondence sends first American agent abroad to secure weapons. 4 July: Declaration of Independence. 12-22 September: Nathan Hale’s disastrous espionage mission behind British lines in New York City. 27 November: Continental Congress appropriates first intelligence funds.

1777  George Washington organizes first intelligence service by initiating contacts with Committees of Security in each state.

1778  George Washington organizes the “Culper Spy Ring” and other spy networks.

1780 September: Benedict Arnold defects to the British.

1783 3 September: Treaty of Paris ends the Revolutionary War with Britain.

1790  1 July: Congress establishes Contingent Fund to pay for Amer

Ican agents abroad.

1798 Congress passes Alien and Sedition Acts.

1804 May: The Lewis and Clark “Corps of Discovery” expedition begins. Lewis and Clark carry secret orders to make accurate maps of the West. Attempt to overthrow the ruler of Tripoli in order to end the taking of American hostages; effort fails and affair ends in 1805 in a negotiated settlement.

1811  Congress passes secret resolution authorizing President James Madison to temporarily occupy Spanish Florida. Florida becomes American in 1813.

1812  The War of 1812 with Britain; ends in 1814.

1815 U. S. Navy takes action against Barbary Coast pirates; navy sinks Algerian warship, kills Algerian admiral, and puts an end Barbary Coast terrorism.

1822 House of Representatives makes Committee on Foreign Affairs a standing committee.

1845 President James Polk authorizes covert operation to induce California to declare independence from Mexico.

1848 22 February: Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo cedes a large chunk of Mexico to the United States.

1861  The Civil War begins; ends in 1865. First use of balloons for reconnaissance; intercepts of telegraph messages; visual flag signals; ciphers to protect communications; and deception and disinformation campaigns. U. S. government establishes National Detective Bureau to engage in counterespionage; evolves into the Secret Service.

1862  Confederacy establishes Signal and Secret Service Bureau.

1863  Army establishes Bureau of Military Information.

1865 5 July: The federal government establishes the Secret Service.

1882 23 March: U. S. Navy establishes Office of Intelligence, soon after renamed Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI).

1885 October: War Department establishes Military Information Division.

1889 First military attaches sent abroad.

1898 25 January: American battleship Maine arrives in Havana, Cuba. 15 February: The sinking of USS Maine in Havana Harbor. 19 April: Congressional resolution authorizing President William McKinley to use military force against Spain in Cuba. 24 April: Military Intelligence Section agents sent to Cuba to assist Cuban insurgents against the Spanish. 25 April: United States declares war on Spain over Cuba. 1 May: Destruction of Spanish fleet in Manila Harbor. 22-24 July: U. S. Army lands in Cuba. 10 December: Treaty of Paris ends Spanish-American War.

1905  Russo-Japanese War; Japanese victory.

1906  Japanese war scare in U. S. prompts intelligence gathering against Japan; ends in 1907.

1908 Military Intelligence Section files transferred to Army War College, ending War Department intelligence activities. Department of Justice establishes Bureau of Investigation.

1911  February: German deception operation to provoke war between U. S. and Mexico by claiming alliance between Mexico and Japan.

1912  Contingency Plans developed; Green Plan for intervening in revolutionary Mexico; Orange Plan for war with Japan.

1914  July: Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany declare war against Serbia, Britain, and France. U. S. taken completely by surprise.

1915  Plan of San Diego, an aborted German plan to foment an uprising by Mexican Americans, Native Americans, and African Americans in the American Southwest.

1916  U. S. Army incursions into Mexico to catch Pancho Villa; U. S. intelligence based only on interrogations of refugees. 1 July: Congress authorizes Bureau of Investigation to engage in counterespionage on behalf of the Department of State.

1917  The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Labor Federation foments strikes and labor unrest to prevent U. S. entry into World War II. IWW used by German intelligence for sabotage in U. S. February: British turn Zimmerman telegram over to President Woodrow Wilson; German scheme to seek an alliance with Mexico in a war with U. S. March: American Protective League begins to act as auxiliary to the Bureau of Investigation. 4 April: U. S. entry into World War I. April: War Department establishes Military Intelligence Section as well as the

Cipher Bureau, first American agency to collect communications intelligence (COMINT). April-May: President Wilson invokes federal laws restricting the movements of enemy aliens in the U. S. Bureau of Investigation is beefed up. U. S. Army establishes G-2 appellation for intelligence within military units; G-2 establishes liaison with foreign counterparts. 15 June: President Wilson signs the Espionage Act into law. 5 September: IWW offices raided by Bureau of Investigation agents and American Protective League auxiliaries. September: President Wilson takes steps to establish “the Inquiry.” October: Trading-with-the-En-emy Act passed; allows federal government to open and censor mail, the print press, and other communications. 12 October: President Wilson establishes National Censorship Board to implement Trading-with-the-Enemy Act. 7 November: The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. November: Military Intelligence Section begins to incorporate American Protective League auxiliaries into its ranks.

1918  February: Military Intelligence Section establishes unit to study enemy propaganda and engage in counterpropaganda. April: President Wilson endorses a strengthened Espionage Act, making spying for a foreign nation and speaking out against the U. S. and the war federal offenses. 3 August: American military landings in Murmansk and Archangel, Russia, to engage the Red Army. 26 August: Military Intelligence Section taken out of the Army War College, renamed Military Intelligence Division, and reestablished as independent unit under General Staff. September: Military Intelligence Division establishes unit to screen travelers to and from the U. S. October: Congress passes the Immigration Act, allowing the government to deport aliens advocating the violent overthrow of the U. S. government. 11 November: World War I ends; Armistice Day. December: “Inquiry” becomes the Division of Political and Territorial Intelligence of the American Peace Commission.

1919  Agreement worked out between Military Intelligence Division (MID) and the State Department to keep code-breaking operations (Cipher Bureau) within MID. Cipher Bureau moves to New York City under cover name Code Compilation Company; begins collecting telegram traffic from cable companies. February: Peace Commission establishes the Division of Current and Diplomatic Correspondence, which sends agents abroad to collect current intelligence. State Department creates “U-1” to carry out intelligence coordination and liaison. June: Attorney general creates Radical Division, soon renamed General Intelligence Division, within Bureau of Investigation to compile intelligence on anarchists; headed by J. Edgar Hoover.

1919-1922 Anticommunist raids by General Intelligence Division.

1920s Office of Naval Intelligence steps up efforts to collect intelligence against Japan and updates War Plan Orange.

1921  November: Naval Disarmament Conference in Washington, D. C.; Cipher Bureau reads Japanese negotiators’ diplomatic traffic.

1922  November: MID prohibited from collecting domestic intelligence.

1924 General Intelligence Division disbanded. January: Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) begins intercepting Japanese communications; unaware of activities of Cipher Bureau. 10 May: J. Edgar Hoover named director of Bureau of Investigation and is restricted to investigating violations of federal law.

1927 Congress passes tough law prohibiting unauthorized interception or disclosure of the contents of electrical and electronic communications. State Department’s “U-1” abolished and responsibilities allocated to geographic divisions.

1929 The army’s Signal Intelligence Service established to break foreign codes. March: Secretary of State Henry L. Stimpson orders Cipher Bureau closed.

1930s State Department maintains the only domestic counterintelligence operation in the U. S. government.

1931 Herbert Yardley, former director of Cipher Bureau, publishes book disclosing U. S. ability to read Japanese diplomatic traffic.

1933  President Franklin D. Roosevelt establishes diplomatic ties with Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Adolf Hitler becomes chancellor of Germany.

1934  Japan denounces 1922 Naval Treaty.

1937 Japan begins occupation of China.

1938 Army chief of staff secretly authorizes the Signal Intelligence Service to intercept radio communications and provide crypto-analytic services.

1938  British prime minister Neville Chamberlain announces Munich Agreement with Adolf Hitler, ceding Czechoslovakia.

1939  Japanese government switches to “Purple” code machine. June: President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues secret directive, placing all espionage, counterespionage, and sabotage matters under jurisdictions of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Military Intelligence Division (MID), and Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI); also establishes Interdepartmental Intelligence Committee (IIC) to coordinate these activities. June: President Roosevelt gives the FBI authority to carry out counterintelligence and security operations against Axis agents in Latin America. 29 August: Nazi-Soviet Nonaggression Pact signed; ONI and MID begin daily intelligence briefings of the president. 1 September: Nazi Germany attacks Poland; World War II begins.

1940  Japan joins the Axis. President Roosevelt sends William J. Donovan to Britain to assess its ability to withstand Germany. April: Prime Minister Winston Churchill sends William Stephenson to establish liaison and urge U. S. to counter Axis sabotage and subversion in U. S. 24 June: President Franklin D. Roosevelt orders the establishment of the Special Intelligence Service within the Federal Bureau of Investigation to engage in espionage in Latin America. August: Signals Intelligence Service breaks Japan’s “Purple” code; intercepted messages given code name MAGIC. December: William Donovan, accompanied by William Stephenson, visits Mediterranean and Balkans.

1941  President Roosevelt establishes informal intelligence network operated out of the White House. U. S. government freezes Japanese assets in the U. S. February: The British reveal to U. S. that they had broken the German “Enigma” code; decryptions code-named ULTRA. March: Donovan proposes an intelligence agency to analyze intentions of enemies; opposed by ONI, MID, and FBI. 11 June: President Roosevelt appoints Donovan as coordinator of information (COI) to collect and analyze national security information. 22 June: Germany attacks the Soviet Union. 7 December: Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor; the U. S. enters World War II.

1942  U. S. establishes Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) to collect radio broadcasts and press information. 1 January: President Roosevelt forms “grand alliance” against Axis powers through the “Declaration of the United Nations” to fight collectively. 11 February: Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) establishes the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC). 9 March: Military Intelligence Service (MIS) established as the operating arm of the Military Intelligence Division. April: President Roosevelt signs order to intern Japanese Americans. 13 June: President Roosevelt abolishes the coordinator of information position and establishes the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

1943  Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) and OSS launch Jedburgh teams behind enemy lines in Europe. 27 January: OSS Detachment 101 launches mission against the Japanese in Burma.

1944  6 June: Allied landings in Normandy, France after OSS deception operation to convince the Germans that landing would take place in Calais. Early November: President Roosevelt asks William Donovan to prepare a plan for a permanent postwar intelligence agency. 18 November: Donovan sends President Roosevelt a secret memo calling for a permanent intelligence organization much like the OSS, with no law enforcement powers at home.

1945  9 February: American press discloses Donovan’s plan, effectively killing the proposal. February: Project VENONA initiated. April: President Roosevelt dies. May: Germany surrenders unconditionally. 6 August: First atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. 9 August: Second atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. 15 August: Japan surrenders. 1 October: President Harry Truman abolishes the OSS.

1946  22 January: President Truman establishes the National Intelligence Authority (NIA) and within it the Central Intelligence Group (CIG), headed by Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) Sydney W. Souers. March: Army, navy, and air force intelligence directed to join CIG in producing assessment of Soviet military capabilities. House of Representatives establishes the House Armed Services Committee. The Senate establishes the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC). June: Lt. General Hoyt S. Vandenberg succeeds Souers as DCI. 23 July: First national intelligence estimate on Soviet strategic posture produced by CIG. July: Director of Central Intelligence Hoyt Vandenberg establishes the Office of

Special Operations (OSO) to conduct espionage and the Office of Reports and Estimates (ORE) to engage in analysis, both within the CIG.

1947  February: President Truman proposes National Security Act. 12 March: President Truman enunciates “Truman Doctrine.” 19 April: Military Intelligence Service absorbs Military Intelligence Division. 26 July: Congress passes National Security Act. August: Rear Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter becomes DCI. 18 September: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) established. December: National Security Council (NSC) issues National Security Council Directive (NSCD) 4-A, giving the CIA authority to engage in covert actions.

1948  CIA propaganda campaign in Italy to keep the communists from gaining power. May: George F. Kennan proposes independent Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) to carry out covert operations; established by National Security Council Directive 10/2 and headed by Frank Wis-ner. 18 June: National Security Council (NSC) issues NSCD 10/2 authorizing the creation of the Office of Policy Coordination. 1 September: OPC established to conduct covert operations.

1948-1949 Berlin Crisis; Berlin Airlift.

1949  Communist takeover in China. 4 April: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is established.

1950  Radio Free Europe (RFE) goes on the air. DCI Smith establishes Office of National Estimates (ONE); takes over the Office of Policy Coordination. February: Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy assumes chairmanship of the House Un-American Activities Committee. April: National Security Council issues NSC 68, setting forth American principles for confronting the Soviet Union in the Cold War. June 27: Korean War breaks out; surprises the CIA. 19 October: The People’s Republic of China (PRC) enters the Korean War.

1952  OPC officially incorporated into the CIA. CIA’s Office of Policy Coordination combines with CIA’s Office of Special Operations to form the Directorate of Plans (DP). November: Congress establishes the National Security Agency (NSA).

1953  CIA establishes Photographic Intelligence Division. U. S. government sets up United States Information Agency (USIA). April: Operation

MKULTRA initiated. 27 July: Korean truce takes effect. 16 August: CIA overthrows Iranian prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh.

1954  Soviet NKVD renamed KGB. Geneva Accords on Vietnam. 2 June: CIA overthrows Guatemalan president Jacobo Arbenz. 24 November: President Dwight D. Eisenhower approves the building of the U-2 spy plane. 2 December: Senate censures Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy.

1955  Milstar military communications satellites launched. 1 May: Warsaw Pact is established.

1955-1956 Berlin Tunnel Operation.

1956  President Dwight D. Eisenhower establishes President’s Board of Consultants on Foreign Intelligence Activities. U-2 flights begin. February: Premier Khrushchev’s secret speech to the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party. June: CIA acquires Premier Nikita S. Khrushchev’s secret speech and makes it public. 4 July: U-2 spy plane makes its first flight. 26 July: Egyptian president Gamel Abdul Nasser nationalizes the Suez Canal, sparking a crisis. August: CIA begins development of SR-71 supersonic spy plane to replace the U-2. October: Revolt in Hungary against Soviet forces. 29 October: Israeli forces attack Egypt. 31 October: A combined Franco-British military force attacks Egypt. 15 November: United Nations Emergency Force arrives in Egypt, thereby defusing Suez Crisis.

1957  27 June: Ploughshares Program approved. 4 October: Soviet Union launches Sputnik, first man-made satellite in earth orbit.

1958  CIA’s National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) established; incorporates Photographic Intelligence Division. CIA-backed attempt to overthrow President Sukarno of Indonesia. Joint Intelligence Committee disbanded. Soviet Union launches the Sputnik satellite.

1959  January: Fidel Castro comes to power in Cuba. 29 May: Congress passes the National Security Act of 1959.

1960  CIA authorized to assassinate Patrice Lumumba of the Congo; operation aborted. Air force establishes Office of Missile and Satellite Systems. March: President Eisenhower approves covert operation to infiltrate guerrillas into Cuba. Viet Minh guerrillas begin full-scale revolt in Vietnam. Spring: Castro signs trade agreement with USSR. 1 May: Soviet Union downs a U-2 plane flown by Francis Gary Powers. July: First CIA plan to assassinate Fidel Castro; plan called off. 10 August: First successful launch of CORONA spy satellite. 25 August: Central Intelligence Agency and the air force agree to establish the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO).

1961  CIA and air force agreement to establish the NRO comes into effect. The Soviet Union erects a wall in Berlin separating its sector from that of the Western powers. National Security Council creates the National Photographic Interpretation Center (NPIC) from CIA’s Photographic Interpretation Center to serve national customers. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara establishes the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). May: CIA supplies weapons to Dominican dissidents, who assassinate Rafael Trujillo. 17 April: Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. June: President John F. Kennedy meets with Soviet premier Khrushchev in Vienna. 30 November: President Kennedy authorizes “Operation Mongoose,” covert operation to remove Castro.

1962  Defense Intelligence School established. 10 February: Soviet spy Rudolph Abel (William Fischer) is exchanged for U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers. April: SR-71 spy plane makes its first flight. 14 October: CIA discovers Soviet medium-range missiles in Cuba. 27 October: President Kennedy goes on nationwide television to announce “quarantine” of Cuba; the height of Cuban Missile Crisis. 29 October: The Soviet Union backs down and agrees to remove its missiles from Cuba. October: President Kennedy terminates Operation Mongoose. 22 November: President Kennedy assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

1963  10 October: Limited Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (LNTBT) takes effect.

1963-1966 “Confrontation,” undeclared war between Britain, Malaysia, and Indonesia; Indonesia attempts to break up Malaysian Federation through guerrilla insurgency; Britain beats attempt back through successful counterinsurgency techniques.

1964  7 August: Congress adopts Gulf of Tonkin Resolution.

1965  President Johnson orders American troops into Dominican Republic.

1966  June: Richard Helms becomes DCI.

1967  Ramparts reveals CIA funding of National Student Association. 8 June: USS Liberty attacked by Israeli gunboats.

1968  January: The Tet Offensive in Vietnam. 23 January: North Korea seizes the USS Pueblo. Summer: Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. 23 December: North Korea releases crew of USS Pueblo.

1970 5 March: Nonproliferation Treaty enters into force. 4 September: Salvador Allende Gossens popularly elected president of Chile. 15 September: President Richard M. Nixon orders the CIA to prevent Salvador Allende’s election in Chile. 22 October: General Rene Schneider of Chile assassinated. November: National Security Council issues National Security Directive (NSD) Memorandum 93, authorizing the destabilization of the government of Chilean president Allende.

1972  CORONA satellite system terminated. February: President Nixon visits the People’s Republic of China. 17 June: Break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate building in Washington, D. C. 23 July: LANDSAT Satellite launched. December: DCI Helms fired by President Nixon for saying no to assisting in the Watergate break-in.

1973  February-June: James Schlesinger serves as DCI. 8 August: President Nixon resigns presidency. September: DCI William Colby disbands Office of National Estimates and establishes the National Intelligence Council (NIC). 11 September: General Augusto Pinochet mounts a coup in Chile against Salvador Allende.

1974  Hughes-Ryan Amendment, banning CIA assassinations and requiring findings. 12 August: Glomar Explorer retrieves parts of sunken Soviet submarine in Pacific.

1975  Senate creates Select Committee on Intelligence; House creates its own panel to investigate CIA abuses. Iranian Shah reaches understanding with Iraq’s Saddam Hussein against the Kurds. CIA Station Chief in Athens, Richard Welch, murdered by terrorists. 4 January: President Gerald R. Ford establishes the Rockefeller Commission to investigate activities of the Central Intelligence Agency. February: Senate establishes the Select Committee on Intelligence to Investigate Allegations of Illegal or Improper Activities of Federal Intelligence Agencies (later the Church Committee). 30 April: North Vietnamese forces overrun Saigon, effectively bringing the Vietnam War to an end.

12 May: Cambodian Khmer Rouge gunboats seize American merchant ship USS Mayaguez and imprison its crew. 15 May: U. S. marines free the Mayaguez. 6 June: Rockefeller Commission issues its report.

1976  Intelligence Oversight Board (IOB) established to oversee legality and propriety of U. S. intelligence operations. DCI George H. W. Bush authorizes the development of space-based imaging satellite systems codenamed INDIGO, later renamed LACROSSE. 18 February: President Ford issues Executive Order (EO) 11905, reorganizing the U. S. intelligence community, enhancing the position of the director of central intelligence, and establishing the Operations Advisory Group to review and approve covert actions. 19 May: Senate establishes Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). June: Team A-Team B exercise authorized.

1977  14 July: House of Representatives establishes the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). October: “Halloween Massacre” at CIA; DCI Stansfield Turner fires over 800 operations officers.

1978  10 June: U. S. government launches CHALET (later VORTEX) signals intelligence satellite.

1979  DCI Stansfield Turner establishes National Intelligence Production Board. 16 January: The Shah of Iran leaves the country. 1 February: Ayatollah Khomeini returns to Iran. 17 July: Nicaraguan Sandin-istas oust strongman Fulgencio Batista. 4 November: Iranian militants seize and occupy American Embassy in Tehran. December: Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.

1980  CIA ordered to make covert assistance available to Afghan resistance. Intelligence Oversight Act passed.

1981  Soviet intelligence goes on alert fearing surprise U. S. nuclear attack. Defense Intelligence School receives congressional charter and becomes the Defense Intelligence College (DIC). 23 September: Radio Marti established to beam news reports to Cuba. 20 October: President Ronald Reagan issues Executive Order 12331 reestablishing the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB). 4 December: President Reagan issues Executive Orders 12333 and 12334.

1982  January: INDIGO radar imaging satellite tested.

1983  Truck bombing in Beirut kills 241 U. S. Marines. U. S Embassy in Beirut bombed by Islamic extremists. 23 March: President Reagan announces the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). 1 September: Soviet fighter jets shoot down Korean civilian airliner KAL 007.

1984  4 January: National Security Council issues National Security Council Directive 17, approving CIA assistance to the Contra rebels in Nicaragua. March: CIA officer William Buckley taken hostage by terrorists in Lebanon; is subsequently murdered. November: Iran sounds out U. S. through intermediaries about possibility of ransoming hostages in Lebanon in exchange for weapons. U. S. government covertly ships weapons to Iran in exchange for hostages held in Lebanon.

1985  July: Iran secretly makes known to U. S. that it would exert its influence on extremists in Lebanon to release hostages in exchange for arms. August-September: First shipment of weapons to Iran by Israel; one hostage released. December: President Reagan calls off arms sales to Iran.

1986  Congress enacts the Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act. 17 January: President Reagan signs “finding” ordering resumption of arms sales to Iran from U. S. stocks. 2 November: Lebanese newspaper in Beirut reveals the arms-for-hostages deal. 1 December: President Reagan authorizes the Tower Commission to investigate the Iran-Contra Affairs.

1988  18 March: Indictment of Iran-Contra personalities.

1990  August: Iraq invades Kuwait.

1991  Soviet Union dissolves. January: The Persian Gulf War. Federal Bureau of Investigation establishes the National Security Threat List (NSTL). 8 March: Second version of LACROSSE radar imaging satellite launched. May: President George H. W. Bush signs “finding” for covert operations in Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein. (Clinton administration initially discontinues program but then reactivates it in face of congressional pressure.) 1 July: Warsaw Pact disbanded.

1992  Intelligence Community Staff (ICS) becomes the Community Management Staff (CMS).

1993  Defense Intelligence College renamed Joint Military Intelligence College (JMIC). American peacekeepers killed in Somalia. President’s

Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board absorbs the Intelligence Oversight Board. President Bush establishes the National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) within the Department of Justice. 3 February: Senate votes to confirm James Woolsey as DCI.

1995  Department of Defense (DOD) establishes a new budget category, the Joint Military Intelligence Program (JMIP). 17 April: President William J. Clinton signs Executive Order 12958 overhauling government secrecy rules. 12 June: DCI establishes National Intelligence Collection Board (NICB).

1996  1 October: Congress establishes the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (NIMA). 19 December: KH 11, first U. S. digital satellite, deployed.

1997  19 May: President Clinton names George J. Tenet DCI. Fall: Third version of LACROSSE radar imaging satellite launched.

1998  DCI Tenet reveals U. S. intelligence budget. 11 May: India tests nuclear weapons.

1999  DCI Tenet reverses himself and reclassifies U. S. intelligence budget. February: CIA establishes In-Q-Tel. 1 October: Clinton administration abolishes United States Information Agency.

2001  1 April: U. S. Navy spy plane collides with Chinese fighter and makes emergency landing on Chinese soil. May: National Counterintelligence Executive (NCIX) comes into being to protect from foreign industrial espionage. 6 June: DCI Tenet mission to the Middle East. 11 September: Terrorist attacks on World Trade Center towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D. C. 8 October: Governor Tom Ridge is sworn in as director of Office of Homeland Security. 25 October: Congress enacts the USA PATRIOT Act.

2002  4 February: Predator reconnaissance drone attacks convoy of terrorists in Afghanistan. 14 February: Leaders of congressional intelligence committees announce joint inquiry into the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001. 19 March: President George W. Bush establishes President’s Homeland Security Advisory Council (PHSAC). 23 March: Arabic-language Radio Sawa authorized. 14 June: House-Senate panel opens inquiry into 9/11 intelligence failure. 3 November: CIA Predator drone kills al Qaeda operatives in Yemen. 19 November: U. S. Senate passes Homeland Security Bill, establishing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). 16 December: James S. Gilmore III, chair of the Federal Terrorism Commission, issues report.

2003  March: President Bush launches military operations against Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein. 24 November: The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) replaces the National Imagery and Mapping Agency. 28 November: Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty (RL) closed down.

2004  22 July: 9/11 Commission releases its report, criticizing the performance of U. S. intelligence. 27 August: President Bush establishes the National Counterterrorism Center (NCC). December: Congress passes the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, which reorganizes U. S. intelligence by creating the position of the director of national intelligence (DNI) and allowing for the establishment of interagency centers.

2005  17 February: President Bush appoints John D. Negroponte as the first DNI. 1 March: Presidential commission issues report finding the intelligence community to have been “dead wrong” in its assessment of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction capabilities. 18 April: President Bush issues Executive Order (EO) 13376, replacing the DCI with the DNI on the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB).