Moseman, Scott, A. Defining the Mission. The Development of US Strategic Military Intelligence up to the Cold War

From 1882 to 1947 - the year the CIA was founded - strategic military intelligence agencies struggled to define their missions. The American public, government and military leaders, and intelligence professionals all had competing ideas about what military intelligence should be and do. The strategic military intelligence community's effort to define itself and its mission was directly shaped by the trends of the growing American military and maturing American society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. However, this dynamic and revealing facet of intelligence history has remained largely obscured. How did government officials and American society define strategic military intelligence organisations? How did these organisations describe themselves in their service to the US military and the American public as they evolved from a four-man office in 1882 to a multi-organisational operation with thousands of employees in the 1940s? In Defining the Mission, Scott Moseman examines how U.S. strategic military intelligence adapted to various external and internal factors as it sought its raison d'être. Focusing on the Office of Naval Intelligence and the Military Intelligence Division, Moseman examines issues such as the growth of the American military, internationalism versus isolationism, the increasing complexity of government, military professionalism, Hamiltonian versus Jeffersonian ideals, military progressivism, and homeland security. By exploring the contours of the dynamic relationships between strategic military intelligence and government, the military, and society, Moseman shows how the mission and work of military intelligence reflects the society it serves.