The post of DCI, which has been held by 22 men since Adm. Sidney Souers was appointed in January 1946, was the senior post in the United States intelligence structure until December 2004 when the Intelligence Reform Act introduced the position of director of national intelligence. As well as heading the Central Intelligence Agency, the DCI was responsible for coordinating the activities of 43 separate U.S. intelligence agencies until the consolidation of the Department of Homeland Security, which reduced the total number of U.S. intelligence agencies to 15.
The DCIs have been Rear Adm. Sidney Souers (January–June 1946), Lt. Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg (1946–47), Rear Adm. Roscoe Hillenkoetter (1947–50), Gen. Walter Bedell Smith (1950–53), Allen Dulles (1953–61), John McCone (1961–65), Vice Adm. William Raborn (1965–66), Richard Helms (1966–73), James Schlesinger (February–July 1973), William Colby (1973–76), George H. W. Bush (1976–77), Adm. Stansfield Turner (1977–81), William Casey (1981–87), William Webster (1987–91), Robert Gates (1991–93), James Woolsey (1993–95), John Deutsch (1995–96), George Tenet (1997–2004), and Porter Goss (2004–06).