On January 22

On this day in ...

... 1946 (65 years ago today), President Harry S. Truman established the forerunner of today's CIA, or U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Then called the Central Intelligence Group (image credit), it was established by means of a Presidential directive addressed to the Secretaries of State, of War, and of the Navy. It was situated within an agency then called the National Intelligence Authority. The group's purpose, in Truman's words, was that

Federal foreign intelligence activities be planned, developed and coordinated so as to assure the most effective accomplishment of the intelligence mission related to the national security.

(Prior January 22 posts are here, here, and here.)