Contingency Fund for Foreign Intercourse
The Contingency Fund for Foreign Intercourse (sometimes referred to as the Contingent Fund for Foreign Intercourse, or the Secret Service Fund) was a United States government "black budget" program established in 1790 to fund covert operations directed against Europe.
History
The Contingency Fund for Foreign Intercourse was established at the request of President of the United States George Washington in July 1790 with an initial operating appropriation of $40,000. Within three years this amount had grown to more than $1 million, consuming in excess of 12-percent of the United States federal budget. The terms of the appropriation permitted Washington (and eventually his successors) to conceal the nature and purpose of expenditures made from the fund. Information about activities funded by the Contingency Fund are sparse, however, it is known they were generally ad hoc covert operations directed against European states. [1][2]
In 1831 Senator John Forsyth described the purpose of the fund as one designed to finance the operation of "spies, if the gentleman pleases; for persons sent publicly and secretly to search for important information, political or commercial ... for agents to feel the pulse of foreign governments".[3]
By 1846 the Contingency Fund for Foreign Intercourse had come under increasing congressional scrutiny. Whigs in the the United States House of Representatives requested a full accounting of expenditures made under the fund during the just-completed administration of John Tyler, a request then-president James Polk rebuffed, declaring that "in no nation is the application of such funds made public".[4]
Known operations financed by the Fund
In its first year of existence, 1790, the fund was used to finance a mission by Gouverneur Morris in London.[5]
In 1812 James Madison used $50,000 from the fund, equivalent to the cost of a naval frigate, to acquire the Henry Papers, purported correspondence between British spy John Henry and the Governor-General of Canada.[6][7]
According to a public statement made by president John Tyler, Duff Green was paid $1,000 from the fund to finance an operation in the United Kingdom in 1841 that influenced the appointment of the Lord Ashburton as the British negotiator in the Maine-New Brunswick border dispute. The results of the ultimate settlement resulted in the net transfer of about 2,000 square miles (5,200 km2) of territory to the United States by the United Kingdom, to the consternation of many in Canada.[3]
References
- ^ Turner, Michael (2014). Historical Dictionary of United States Intelligence. Rowman & Littlefield. p. xxi. ISBN 0810878909.
- ^ "The Evolution of the U.S. Intelligence Community-An Historical Overview". fas.org. Federation of American Scientists. Retrieved 5 November 2016.
- ^ a b Warner, John (Summer 1987). "Where Secrecy is Essential". Studies in Intelligence: 45–52.
- ^ Robarge, David (Winter 2010). "Central Intelligence Agency and Public Accountability". Journal of Intelligence History: 112–113.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help) - ^ Knott, Stephen (1996). Secret and Sanctioned: Covert Operations and the American Presidency. Oxford University Press. pp. 167–170. ISBN 9780195100983.
- ^ Richard W Leopold, The Growth of American Foreign Policy: A History (1962) p. 63.
- ^ Babcock, Kendric (1968). The Rise of American Nationality, 1811-1819. Ardent Media. pp. 63–68.