The Central Intelligence Agency was established on 26 July 1947 and officially began operating 18 September 1947. Effective 1 October 1947, the Director of Central Intelligence assumed operational responsibility for JANIS. On 13 January 1948, the National Security Council issued Intelligence Directive (NSCID) No. 3, which officially authorized the National Intelligence Survey (NIS) program as a peacetime replacement for the wartime JANIS program. Before adequate NIS sections could be produced, it was necessary to develop gazetteers and maps for an accurate presentation of intelligence by the contributing agencies. The US Board on Geographic Names (BGN) compiled the names, the Department of the Interior produced the gazetteers, and CIA produced the maps.
The Hoover Commission's Clark Committee, set up in 1954 to study the structure and administration of the CIA, reported to Congress in 1955 that: "The National Intelligence Survey is an invaluable publication which provides the essential elements of basic intelligence on all areas of the world. . . . There will always be a continuing requirement for keeping the Survey up-to-date." The Factbook was created as an annual summary and update to the encyclopedic NIS studies. The first classified Factbook was published in August 1962, and the first unclassified version was published in June 1971. The NIS program was terminated except for the Factbook and gazetteers in 1973. The 1975 Factbook was the first to be made available to the public with sales through the US Government Printing Office (GPO). The 1996 edition was the first to be printed by GPO. The year 1997 marks the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency and the 54th year of continuous basic intelligence support to the US Government by The World Factbook and its two predecessor programs.
______________________________________________________________________
There have been some significant changes in this edition. A schema or Guide to Country Profiles has been added. The new maps and flags accompanying each country profile are in color. The country name Zaire has been officially changed to Democratic Republic of the Congo. Congo is now referred to as Republic of the Congo. New reference maps of the United States, Ethnolinguistic Groups in Afghanistan, and Central Africa have been included. Introduction is a new category with two entries--Current issues and Historical perspective that now appear in only a few country profiles, but will be added to all countries in the future. The Area--comparative entry was separated from the Area entry. The lowest point and highest point information has been removed from the Terrain entry and put into a new entry called Elevation extremes. The former Environment entry has been replaced by three new entries--Natural hazards, Environment--current issues, and Environment--international agreements. US diplomatic representation has been renamed Diplomatic representation from the US in order to parallel the Diplomatic representation in the US entry. The former Airports entry has been split into three separate entries--Airports, Airports--with paved runways, and Airports--with unpaved runways. The Defense category has been renamed Military. The Branches entry has been renamed Military branches. The former Manpower availability entry has been replaced by four new entries--Military manpower--military age, Military manpower--availability, Military manpower--fit for military service, and Military manpower--reaching military age annually. The former Defense expenditures entry has been replaced by two new entries--Military expenditures--dollar figure, and Military expenditures--percent of GDP. Transnational Issues is a new category that now includes only two existing entries (Illicit drugs and Disputes--international) but additional entries will be considered in the future.