![]() ![]() It was forbidden from conducting intelligence gathering domestically. The CIA was required to conduct its intelligence gathering efforts outside the United States. In 1947, Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, establishing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). ![]() But the need to bring foreign intelligence operations into one agency was apparent. Roosevelt established the Office of Strategic Services (OCC), centralizing, for the first time in American history, intelligence gathering and analysis.Īt the end of the war in 1945 President Harry Truman abolished the OSS along with other agencies created during the war. After the United States entered the war, President Franklin D. Prior to World War II there was no central organization to coordinate American intelligence activities. Placing the Artifacts in Context: The Formation of the CIA During the Cold War It is actually a dead drop spike with a removable top that pulls off to reveal a hidden compartment for top secret information to be inconspicuously exchanged. Items that normally would not receive a close look are perfect candidates for active concealment and the cemetery spike in the exhibit is a perfect example. This subminiature camera, smaller than a modern iPhone, could take high-quality photographs of documents at close range, making it ideal for secret photography. View a Minox C Camera, once known as the world’s most widely used spy camera. Just imagine what can be hiding in plain sight.Ī visit to Cold War: Soviets, Spies and Secrets provides a rare opportunity to see artifacts on loan from the CIA Museum, which is not open to the public due to its location at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. ![]() Taking normal, everyday objects and adding a secret compartment is tradecraft for both spy amateurs and professionals known as “active concealment.” The exhibit features a CIA table radio, circa 1970, with a concealed camera hidden behind the speaker and a CIA shaving cream can, circa the 1950’s-1970s, with a bottom that unscrews to reveal a secret compartment. While the briefcase looks normal from the outside, it opens to reveal a hidden Honeywell Pentax camera with a stand for taking photographs of confidential documents. Viewing these creative tools of spycraft emphasizes the adage that the truth is stranger than fiction.Ī CIA Photo Briefcase, on loan from the International Spy Museum, gives insight into the way CIA operatives in the mid-late 20th century gathered information. First glance at the spy section in Cold War: Soviets, Spies and Secrets might have visitors thinking they are looking at props straight from the movie screen as maybe the creative work of Q, the gadget inventor for the fictional spy James Bond, but they are actual authentic spy tools used by the CIA and on-loan from some of the leading institutions in the US dedicated to preserving the history of spycraft in America.įrom everyday items with hidden compartments to high-tech cameras, these artifacts highlight the important and, often dangerous, work of collecting information during the Cold War. ![]()
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