Defense Intelligence Agency

Table of contents

1 Overview
2 History
3 See also
4 External links

Overview

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), designated in 1986 as a United States Department of Defense combat support intelligence agency was established in 1961. It has over 7,000 military and civilian employees worldwide and is a major producer and manager of intelligence for the Department of Defense. DIA's mission is to provide timely and objective military intelligence to warfighters, policymakers, and force planners. It has its headquarters in The Pentagon, Washington, D.C and is considered to be a member of the Intelligence Community in its entity. The director of the DIA is the main adviser to the Secretary of Defense and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on matters related to military intelligence. Under the support of the Military Intelligence Board, DIA unifies the Defense Intelligence Community on major issues such as the number of deployed forces, assessments, policy, and resources. To help weapon systems planners and the Defense community, DIA plays a major role in providing intelligence on foreign weapon systems.

History

After World War II until the creation of the DIA, the three Military Departments collected, produced and distributed their intelligence for individual use. This turned out to be too duplicative, costly, and ineffective as each department provided their estimates to the Secretary of Defense or to other governmental agencies.

The Defense Reorganization Act of 1958 wanted to correct these deficiencies by assigning responsibility for U&S Command intelligence support. However, the intelligence responsibilities remained unclear, the coordination was poor and the first results were short of national reliability and focus. As a result of the poor organization, President Eisenhower appointed the Joint Study Group in 1960 to find better ways for organizing the nation's military intelligence activities.

Acting on the recommendations of the Joint Study Group, Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara advised the JCS of his decision to establish a Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in February 1961. He assigned them with developing a concept plan that would integrate all the military intelligence of the DoD. The JCS completed this assignment by July, and published DoD Directive 5105.21, "Defense Intelligence Agency" on 1 August, effective 1 October 1961.

According to the plan for the new Agency, DIA reported to the Secretary of Defense through the JCS. It was a union of Defense intelligence and counterintelligence activities, and did not add administrative layering within the Defense intelligence community. The Agency's mission was the continuous task of collecting, processing, evaluating, analyzing, integrating, producing, and disseminating military intelligence for the DoD. Other objectives included more efficiently allocating scarce intelligence resources, more effectively managing all DoD intelligence activities, and eliminating redundancies in facilities, organizations, and tasks. During the summer of 1961, as Cold War tensions flared over the Berlin Wall, Air Force Lieutenant General Joseph F. Carroll, soon to become DIA's first director, planned and organized this new agency. It began operations with a handful of employees in borrowed office space on 1 October 1961.

Following DIA's establishment, the Services transferred intelligence functions and resources to it on a time-phased basis to avoid rapidly degrading the overall effectiveness of defense intelligence. Specifically, DoD assigned DIA the mission of collecting, processing, evaluating, analyzing, integrating, producing, and disseminating military intelligence for the Department. A year after its formation, the Agency faced its first major intelligence test during the superpower confrontation that developed after Soviet missiles were discovered at bases in Cuba. Yet, even in the midst of this crisis, Agency organizational efforts continued. In late 1962, DIA established the Defense Intelligence School, and on 1 January 1963, it activated a new Production Center. Several Service elements were merged to form this production facility, which occupied the "A" and "B" Building at Arlington Hall Station, Virginia.

The Agency also added an Automated Data Processing (ADP) Center on 19 February, a Dissemination Center on 31 March, and a Scientific and Technical Intelligence Directorate on 30 April 1963. DIA assumed the staff support functions of the J-2, Joint Staff, on 1 July 1963. Two years later, on 1 July 1965, DIA accepted responsibility for the Defense Attache System--the last function the Services transferred to DIA.

During these early years of DIA's existence, Agency attempts to establish itself as DoD's central military intelligence organization met with continuing Service opposition. At the same time, the Vietnam War severely tested the fledgling Agency's ability to produce accurate, timely intelligence. In particular, the war increased defense intelligence's involvement in efforts to account for American service members missing or captured in Southeast Asia. DIA analysts focused during the 1960's on: China's detonation of an atomic bomb and the launching of its cultural revolution; increasing unrest among African nations; and, fighting in Malaysia, Cyprus, and Kashmir. In the late 1960's, crises that tested intelligence responsiveness included: the Tet offensive in Vietnam; the Six-Day War between Egypt and Israel; continuing troubles in Africa, particularly Nigeria; North Korea's seizure of the PUEBLO; and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia.

Whether managing the deployment of a multi-agency National Intelligence Support Team, which provides tailored intelligence support to the military commander during crises, or developing innovative concepts toward a virtual collaborative environment for intelligence analysis such as the Joint Intelligence Virtual Architecture, DIA is "Committed to Excellence in Defense of the Nation."

External links

DIA official site