This Diplomatic Security history, professionally researched and written by the State Department Historian’s Office, is an authoritative reference source and an archival record of the many critical duties, milestone events, prominent personalities, and worldwide locations with which DS has been associated over the past century. The first comprehensive, detailed history ever prepared, it is dedicated to the men and women who have served the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and its predecessors – the Office of Security (SY) and the Office of the Chief Special Agent of the U.S. Department of State – from the inception in 1916 up to the present. Contents:
PREFACE - DEFINING DIPLOMATIC SECURITY * INTRODUCTION - THE FOUNDATIONS OF DIPLOMATIC SECURITY * CHAPTER 1 - SPECIAL AGENTS, SPECIAL THREATS * Creating the Office of the Chief Special Agent, 1914-1933 * CHAPTER 2 - THE VITAL FUNCTION * World War II and Diplomatic Security * CHAPTER 3 - CREATING A SECURITY OFFICE * Robert L. Bannerman and Cold War, 1945-1950 * CHAPTER 4 - McCARTHYISM AND COLD WAR * Diplomatic Security in the 1950s * CHAPTER 5 - SPIES, LEAKS, BUGS, AND DIPLOMATS * Diplomatic Security in the 1960s * CHAPTER 6 - THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION * Terrorism and Diplomatic Security, 1967-1978 * CHAPTER 7 - ACCELERATING TRANSFORMATION * Enhancing Security, 1979-1985 * CHAPTER 8 - ALL UNDER ONE ROOF * A Bureau for Diplomatic Security, 1986-1992 * CHAPTER 9 - A BLUEPRINT FOR SECURITY * DS, Terrorism, and the Post-Cold War World, 1992-2000 * EPILOGUE - NEW MILLENNIUM, NEW CHALLENGES, NEW RESPONSIBILITIES, 2001-2010 * CONCLUSION - A MONUMENTAL BUT ESSENTIAL TASK * APPENDIX * Statement by the White House on the Omnibus Diplomatic Security and Antiterrorism Act of 1986: September 19, 1986 * Public Law 99-399: Omnibus Diplomatic Security and Antiterrorism Act of 1986 [excerpt]
This history focuses on how the Bureau of Diplomatic Security (DS) and each of its predecessors (the Office of Security, the Security Office, and the Office of the Chief Special Agent) emerged and changed over the course of nearly a century. The work also describes how and why several security-related functions became centralized into a security office. Until recently, the personnel and resources devoted to the Department's security office have been small in relation to the enormous task confronting the Department's security professionals. As a result, individuals figure prominently in this history and their contributions are highlighted when possible.
Practices, procedures, and responsibilities often arise well before a bureaucracy designates a person or office to specialize in that task. Historians of cryptology have shown that rulers and diplomats used codes and ciphers in communications long before a national, city-state, or royal government devoted an entity or person exclusively to the creation of codes or the encryption / decryption of communications. Past generations of U.S. diplomats, including the first diplomat Benjamin Franklin, gave serious consideration to diplomatic security, yet, how they conceived the threats they faced and the countermeasures they devised were determined by the available technology and the milieu in which they lived. Some measures have changed so markedly that they now seem minimally related to security, yet the contribution of such "forgotten" measures to the history of diplomatic security is unmistakable. For example, from 1800 to 1916, Despatch Agents were the Department's foremost security personnel, but their work has changed significantly so that they are no longer viewed as security personnel.
Rather than trying to discuss each of the many security-related measures enacted by the Department of State, this history concentrates upon the broader context of threats and crises confronting the Department during a particular era, as well as the measures that fell eventually under the purview of DS.
