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A Look Back … Truman Appoints First DCI, 1946
More than 60 years ago,
President Harry S. Truman appointed the first Director of Central Intelligence,
Sidney W. Souers. DCI Souers did not serve in the post long, but he made key
decisions that still affect the Intelligence Community today.
The office diary of the
President's chief military adviser, Flt. Adm. William Leahy, records a curious
event on January 24, 1946:
"At lunch today in
the White House, with only members of the Staff present, Rear Admiral Sidney
Souers and I were presented [by President Truman] with black cloaks, black
hats, and wooden daggers, and the President read an amusing directive to us
outlining some of our duties in the Central Intelligence Agency [sic], 'Cloak
and Dagger Group of Snoopers'."
With this whimsical
ceremony, President Truman christened Admiral Soeurs as the first Director of
Central Intelligence. Souers had served as Deputy Director of Naval
Intelligence during World War II, and before then had been a St.
Louis banker and insurance executive, as well as a pillar of the
Democratic Party in Missouri.
In late 1945 he had coordinated the various intelligence reform plans
considered by the White House in the drafting of the President's January 22,
1946 directive that created the Central Intelligence Group (CIG). Although
Souers was not one of Truman's home-state cronies, he quietly inspired the
President’s confidence.
What DCI Souers
directed at first was only a handful of staffers loaned from the State
Department and the armed services. His new CIG as yet had no statutory mandate,
no direct appropriations, no authority to sign contracts or hire its own
personnel, and (for the time being) no capacity to collect information from
agents in the field.
But CIG grew rapidly from this humble beginning. Souers
set up his office in Room 4252 of the New War Department Building (now a
section of the State Department's main headquarters). On February 15 he
sent Truman the first Daily Summary, the first of thousands of daily
intelligence briefs for the President that continue to this day.
President Truman liked
his Daily Summary, and that favor brought DCI Souers lasting influence. By the
end of 1946, CIG also had acquired an operational role. He made the decisions
that resulted in CIG taking on the leftover foreign stations of the moribund
Office of Strategic Services. With them, Souers and future DCI's were given the
responsibility of coordinating all US clandestine activities abroad. Both of
these missions--the provision of strategic warning to the President and the
coordination of clandestine activities--would be inherited by the new Central
Intelligence Agency under the provisions of the National Security Act of 1947.
Souers himself stepped
down as DCI in mid-1946, but soon returned to the Truman Administration to
serve as the first Executive Secretary of the National Security Council. He
died in 1973.
Posted: Jan 17, 2008 07:00 AM
Last Updated: Jan 17, 2008 07:00 AM
Last Reviewed: Jan 17, 2008 07:00 AM