National Security Agency (NSA): From the Cold War to Post-9/11

The National Security Agency (NSA) is one of the primer intelligence-gathering agencies of the US Intelligence Community. Although the role of the NSA is focused on gathering SIGINT from foreign sources, in different historical periods, there were notable exceptions to this practice which caused controversy. One of the best-known operations of the NSA was the Venona Project. The crisis that developed due to Soviet missile sites being established on Cuban territory was a failure, as prior to the reconnaissance flight no information gleaned through SIGINT indicated the Soviet efforts. However, tactical SIGINT capabilities remained with the branches of the US armed forces. The post-Cold War political environment, however, meant that the NSA and other members of the Intelligence Community had to contend with budget cuts. There is a close relationship between the NSA and US Cyber Command.