Is There Any Kind of State Intelligence?

For a long time, our country did not have any kind of state intelligence apparatus. Through most of the 18 hundreds, very few elected leaders felt there was value in collecting intelligence about foreign countries at all. Part of this came from a belief that the united states was best ice off isolating herself,. And part of it came from an idea elucidated by secretary of war henry stimpson, that gentlemen do not read each other's mail.