The DIA entered the 1980s with a new charter detailing 26 functions. Although the Agency didn’t see another charter update until 1997, which included 57 functions, many of DIA’s roles and responsibilities were established during this period.
Shortly after entering office on December 4, 1981, President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12333, which provided vital updates, authorities and limitations to U.S. intelligence-related activities, specifying that “all reasonable and lawful means must be used to ensure that the United States will receive the best intelligence possible.”
For the Department of Defense, a key requirement in EO 12333 was protecting the security of DoD installations, activities, information, property and employees, which DIA assumed a major role in fulfilling.
EO 12333 charged DIA with intelligence collection, analysis, production of intelligence, and dissemination of foreign intelligence and counterintelligence to support the secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, combatant commanders, other DoD components, and non-DoD agencies.
For the Department of Defense, a key requirement in EO 12333 was protecting the security of DoD installations, activities, information, property and employees, which DIA assumed a major role in fulfilling.
EO 12333 charged DIA with intelligence collection, analysis, production of intelligence, and dissemination of foreign intelligence and counterintelligence to support the secretary of defense, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, combatant commanders, other DoD components, and non-DoD agencies.
In the early 1980s, the Reagan administration placed a high priority on resolving POW/MIA issues lingering from the Vietnam War, and DIA’s Office of POW/MIA Affairs expanded fivefold during this period.
The office was responsible for investigating all live-sighting reports that might involve missing U.S. servicemen.
In 1984, to accommodate the growing Agency, the construction of the DIA Center ended a decades-long effort to consolidate Agency operations located in a number of facilities scattered throughout the Washington metropolitan area, including Arlington Hall Station, the Cafritz Building, Pomponio Plaza, the Washington Navy Yard and the Pentagon.
Decentralized, overcrowded, inconvenient and unattractive, the Agency’s early facilities presented a major obstacle to establishing organizational integrity and esprit de corps during the Agency’s critical early years.
Conversely, the DIAC was designed to accommodate 2,739 personnel in 845,900 square feet of space — a giant leap for the future of DIA.
In an important organizational development, the Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reorganization Act of 1986 designated DIA as a combat support agency, clarifying and enhancing DIA’s responsibilities with respect to the combatant commanders.
The legislation gave the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff the right to review DIA’s support to military operations, and ultimately made DIA responsible for establishing a joint military intelligence doctrine.
In response, DIA Director Lt. Gen. Leonard Perroots set up the Command Support and Plans Directorate, which was responsible for coordinating support to the combatant commands and creating the new joint intelligence doctrine.
Looking for ways to increase cooperative intelligence efforts between Agency and field commands, DIA established the Operational Intelligence Crisis Center and national military intelligence support teams.
With new authorities and capabilities, DIA supported Operation Earnest Will in 1987 and 1988, the largest naval convoy operation since World War II and saw U.S. forces providing protection to Kuwaiti oil tankers during the Tanker War phase of the Iran-Iraq War.
In 1989, U.S. military forces landed in Panama as part of Operation Just Cause to replace dictator Manuel Noriega with a democratic government.
DIA analysts supplied intelligence to combat forces and policymakers, and deployed a national military intelligence support team to support the operation.
The lessons drawn from these operations were critical in establishing the capabilities that would prove decisive during the Gulf War.
As the 1980s came to a close, DIA was well-postured for the future. How it fared in the 1990s is another story.