ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Espionage, Intelligence, and Security Volume ...

DCICIA director George Tenet, right, huddles with CIA Assistant Director Dale Watson during testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2002, duringwhich Tenet told the committee that Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror group remained the most immediate threat facing the U.S. AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS.William J. Casey, a key figure in the Iran-Contra affair. Thelist of DCIs also includes a man who went on to hold thenation’s highest office: George H. W. Bush.Directors of CentralIntelligence: 1946–73The title of the DCI is actually older than the CIA itself:President Harry S. Truman first used it in a January 22,1946, presidential directive, when he designated it as thelead position in the Central Intelligence Group (CIG) withinthe National Intelligence Authority (NIA). It was in thiscapacity that the first DCI, Rear Admiral Sidney W. Souers,served during his brief tenure (January 23-June 10, 1946).Lieutenant General Hoyt S. Vandenberg (June 10, 1946-May 1, 1947) also served as DCI prior to the establishmentof the CIA.The latter was created under the National Security Actof July 26, 1947, which also created the National SecurityCouncil (NSC), and it began operation on September 18.On May 1, Rear Admiral Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter becameDCI, and on December 19, the NSC gave him orders for theCIA to conduct its first covert operation intended to influencethe general elections in Italy so as to prevent aCommunist victory. So successful was this effort that theEncyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and SecurityCIA’s leadership became convinced of the efficacy ofcovert action.Despite this success, Truman blamed Hillenkoetterfor failing to predict the coming of the Korean War, andreplaced him with General Walter Bedell Smith on October7, 1950. Smith held the position throughout the entiretyof the Korean War, and it was under his leadershipthat the CIA undertook one of its more notorious earlycovert actions by helping to bring about the overthrow ofIran’s Premier Mohammed Mossadegh after the latternationalized oil fields in his country. Smith resigned onFebruary 9, 1953, after President Dwight D. Eisenhower—on whose staff he had served in World War II—appointedhim under secretary of state.Dulles and the 1950s. The accession of Allen W. Dulles to theposition of DCI on February 26, 1953, marked the beginningof a new era. Whereas most of his predecessors hadserved in military intelligence units during the war, Dullescame from the organization of which the CIA was both asuccessor and an opposite: the Organization for StrategicServices (OSS). Having served as chief of OSS operationsin Europe, Dulles brought expertise to the job. Dulles’sgrandfather, uncle, and brother all served as U.S. secretariesof state, but in contrast to his family’s penchant for309