US CIA:The Central Intelligence Agency is a grandson the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) created during WW2. Truman foolishly disbanded the OSS on Oct. 1, 1945 and reassigned OSS intelligence specialists to the War Dept and the State Dept. The Central Intelligence Group, CIG, was created on Jan. 22, 1946 by Truman with about 100 employees. Its original mission was to coordinate intelligence information and nothing more. Its original function was to digest the cacophony of data collected by military intelligence services and summarize them into a concise digest for the President.
Gen. Hoyte Vandenberg, the 2nd CIG director in 1946, expanded its operations to data collection in foreign countries. He got most of the old OSS people transferred to the CIG from the War and State Depts. and the CIG staff jumped to several thousands.
The National Security Act of July 1947 renamed the CIG to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and established the National Security Council (NSC). On Dec. 19, 1947, the first NSC meeting adopts NSC 4/A - which empowered the CIA to a broad range of covert actions in Italy. By this time Adm. Roscow Hillenkoetter was the director of CIA (DCI).
The first intervention in a foreign affair by the CIA was in Italy. During WW2, Italian communists played a major role in fighting the Fascists. The post-WW2 Italian government included several communists and Truman did not like the situation. The CIA was given the task of eliminating the Italian communists. CIA operatives in Italy planted false stories about the Red, funded rightist organizations, highlighted Russian rapes in Eastern Europe, and veiled hints of military retaliation if the Reds remained in the government. American-Italians were marshaled to mount an pro-American campaign in Italy. The Italian reds were ousted.
On June 18,1948, the NSC 4/A is replaced by the NSC 10/2 which authorized the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) for covert actions worldwide. The OPC director was to be appointed by the Secretary of State and by for funding purposes, it belonged to the CIA. An OSS veteran, Frank Wisner, was the first director of OPC. A few years later, Wisner was fired, went insane and committed suicide.