It is no surprise the Russians were the focus of the United States Intelligence Community during the Cold War. Since the end of the Cold War the United States Intelligence community has drastically reduced its presence in the area. During the Cold War the United States devoted nearly 40 percent of its intelligence resources to include, personal and resources tasked with tracking the Soviet Union and its communist satellites (Miller, 2016). In the aftermath of the Cold War that number has been reduced significantly. Currently the United States only allocates roughly 10 percent of their budgets (Miller, 2016). This reduction of intelligence gathering of the Russians has led to an intelligence failure by the United States over the last decade. …show more content…
In response to the failure the CIA has directed many of its new recruits to assignments involving the Russians. However, this process will take a number of years due to the training required for the new agents to learn the Russian language and become able to recruit and manage spies (Miller, 2016). Although the CIA is responsible for monitoring the Russians abroad, those who are in the United States fall under the jurisdiction of the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI). In a successful operation in 2010, the FBI arrested a group of ten Russian spies who had been operating in the United States for a number of years (Markon, J., 2010). The arrest of 10 spies was a great success for the FBI. However, given the amount of people arrested at a single times in concerning. What is even more concerning is why an arrest of this magnitude did not raise concern to the CIA. As recent as last year Congress has allocated more funding to the CIA for operation in Russia, However, the agency has not been able to utilize the funds due to a lack of authority which is granted by President (Miller, …show more content…
Couple this with the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 90’s the Russians speaks to the mindset that the Russians were no longer a priority. Although this is an understandable oversight, it seems irresponsible for the intelligence to have written off the perseverance of the Russians. In a 2012 presidential debate, President Obama mocked Mr. Romney by saying “the 1980s, they're now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because, you know, the Cold War's been over for 20 years” in response to Mr. Romney saying Russia was American’s biggest geopolitical threat (Moorhead, 2012). This response speaks to the mindset of the United States in regards to Russia. Either by chance or by being intuitive Mr. Romney was not too far off. This intelligence failure is the responsibility of the CIA due to the lack of awareness by the leadership of the United States. The Russians have proven to be a worthy adversary and the United Sates is having to contend with its
‘The wink and the nod’ that was all somehow acceptable to your primary sponsor caused many a dictator to adopt these methods to take and maintain power. Only recently have internal CIA documents become available, allowing researchers to begin to look inside the CIA itself. Partial as these releases are, they supply valuable insight into the machinations of this secretive organization. These documents outline the beginning of the Terror; let's hope we are seeing the end of it.
After World War II American intelligence had the need to be transformed. The inexperience along with bureaucracy and poor coordination among American intelligence officers obligated the United States intelligence community to change dramatically in order to confront the new challenges that emerged after the end of WWII. From Early America through WWI the intelligence system of the United States of America was involved in operations in which they had to construct intelligence systems virtually from scratch (Andrew 1995). Human intelligence was already developed, but with certain limitations and other intelligence disciplines were underdeveloped and very seldom sophisticated. After WWI America recessed and settled in a period of peace. The United States faced no threat to its security from its neighbors, from powers outside of the Western Hemisphere (Lowenthal 2006). That caused a visible absence of intelligence activities, leaving America out of sight for any international conflicts; the United States of America focused and limited its activities beyond its own borders. In later years the Japanese attack to Pearl Harbor, America rushed to reactivate their military forces, moving from a passive country to full participation into a another international conflict; WWII. As a consequence, the United States engaged in activities that improved its intelligence system increasing its capabilities needed to address seriously the future threats of the Cold War.
The terms hawks and doves' were quick labels attached to politicians in order to categorize their views on war and foreign policies, as to make them understandable and accessible for the public. However, these labels were not always accurate and in some cases could be quite misleading; it would have been more accurate not to label individuals as either Hawks or Doves, but instead, what they stood for.
QUESTION 2: The Cold War is an international conflict, a global fight between the United States and the Soviet Union that began in Europe in the wake of World War II but quickly expanded into Asia and the Third World. These international events, however, undoubtedly influenced domestic American politics between 1945 and 1965. How did the international Cold War shape, influence, or change domestic American politics in the first twenty years of the conflict?
In “Spies: the Rise and fall of the KGB in America”, John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev base their information off of a collection of documents that belonged to the KGB. The archives provide the most complete report of Soviet espionage in America ever written. Along with a general look into espionage strategies and the motives of Americans who spied for Stalin, this book settles specific controversies. “Spies: the Rise and Fall of the KGB in America” reveals numerous American spies who were never even under suspicion and also identifies the last unaccounted for nuclear spies who were American. This source focused greatly on Soviet infiltration of the U.S. government, and Haynes, Harvey, and Vassiliev convey why and how penetration contributed to the success and failure of the KGB throughout the Cold War.
The legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA, is a novel written by Tim Weiner which the author discusses how the CIA had started and how the CIA have managed to hide all the horrific failures from the world’s knowledge. I thought that this novel was going to be jaw dropping and catching your attention at every page, but unfortunately that was not the case. Tim Weiner had provided a decent amount of information about how the CIA had failed the citizens of America as well as destroy the reputation and left the agency in worse shape than when each leader had obtained it in.
Though the Cold War is over, and the threat that has loomed over the United States and the rest of the world that depended on the United States for military support for the better part of this century has largely been eradicated, does not mean that there are no longer any security threats to the United States. The United States remains cautious in regards to the unstable status that Russia frequently seems to be in, as well as security threats from other nations like Iraq, and to some degree China.
The Significance of the Use of Espionage During the Cold War During the Cold War there was an increase in the amount of funding and resources devoted to espionage which was helpful to both the USA and USSR. Because there was no fighting, spies became the main use in the battle for the supremacy. The definition of espionage is the act or practice of spying or of using spies to obtain secret information, such as about another government. It is whereby governments gain the systematic use of spies to get military or political secrets. It was used to gain information on the enemy as well as to increase the influence upon areas where conflicts of ideologies being fought over.
In his book Cold War: The American Crusade against World Communism, James Warren discusses the conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union, its causes, its consequences, and its future. Warren also analyzes why the United States was so afraid of communism and how this fear controlled both U.S. domestic and foreign policy. In George Washington’s Farewell Address, he warned future leaders to avoid foreign entanglements. However, the United States strayed away from this policy in 1941 after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. From then on, the United States realized that with its great power came great responsibility. The U.S. felt the responsibility to develop a strategy to combat the spread of world communism, which was viewed as the “Red menace.” The U.S. believed that communism would spread from the Soviet Union, across all of Europe; the U.S. understood that the spread of communism would not be very difficult because the destruction caused by World War II left many nations vulnerable to communism. Also, the Soviet Union had a highly-trained army, a ruthless leader, and a nation committed to Marxist-Leninism, which was a belief that human progress is the destruction of Western democracy and capitalism. The Cold War was a military, diplomatic, economic, and scientific struggle between the Soviet Union and the United States. The rivalry between these two nations also affected places such as Korea, Ethiopia, Nicaragua, Malaya, and Vietnam. The Cold War controlled many of the crises that occurred the last half of the 20th century. The major conflict of course was the threat of nuclear weapons. Thomas Larson wrote that “the vulnerability to weapons that could destroy entire countries...heightened fears and antagonisms and made th...
Nedzi (D-Mich.), Luclen N. “Oversight or Overlook: Congress and the US Intelligence Agency.” A Congressman talk to the CIA senior seminar, November 14, 1979, https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol18no2/pdf/v18i2a02p.pdf (accessed January 7, 2014).
Evaluating threats to America’s national security is a challenge that is undertaken by academics, intelligence analysts, policy-makers, and anyone else with the patience. During the Cold War, America’s biggest concern was easy to define, the only other state capable of competing with America, the Soviet Union. Today, America faces threats from states, non-state actors, domestic groups, and even economic conditions. However, two states should always be kept in mind when discussing national security, China and Russia, with China being the biggest threat.
“You thought you chose the bean and chose the soil.”(7-8) They thought their action of putting nuclear missiles within striking distance of the U.S. was not an inappropriate action. “You even thought you abandoned one or two gardens.”(9-10) This is referencing the first garden of Eden in the Bible. Adam and Eve had to abandon the garden as a consequence of their bad actions. Russia had two other situations in which the end result was punishment or a Russian bereavement. “But those things keep growing where we put them-if we put them at all.”(11-12) This describes the overall direction in which the Cold War was heading. The previous situations from before had not been forgotten,
Lafeber, W. (2002), America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-2000. 9th edn. New-York: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
In 1945 the United States saw the Soviet Union as its principal ally. By 1947, it saw the Soviet Union as its principal opponent. The United States misunderstood the Soviet regime. .Despite much pretence, national security had not been a major concern of US planners and elected officials. historical records reveal this clearly. Few serious analysts took issue with George Kennan's position that "it is not Russian military power which is threatening us, it is Russian political power" ; or with President Eisenhower's consistent view that the Russians intended no military conquest of Western Europe and that the major role of NATO was to "convey a feeling of confidence to exposed populations, which was suposed to make them sturdier, politically, in their opposition to Communist inroads."
Throughout the years most country's governments have established some sort of secret police. No matter what the government called it, whether it is the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or her Majesty's secret service (MI6), whatever name the government used, the international term of "secret police" could always be applied. Many agencies of secret police have had their success and failures, some more than others. The KGB, which in English means "the Committee of Public Safety," has had their share of both successes and failures. Most secret police agencies have been used primarily to obtain information from other countries. This was also a primary goal for the KGB, but one of their other goals, which was just as important, was to keep unwanted outside information from the Russian people. This was only one out of many the KGB's objectives. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to prove that the actions of the KGB were, all in all, a success.