Corps of Intelligence Police

U.S. Army Corps of Intelligence Police Badge, ca. WWI
U.S. Army Corps of Intelligence Police Badge, post-WWI

The Corps of Intelligence Police (CIP), an intelligence agency within the United States Army, and the War Department, operated from 1917 to 1941. It was the predecessor of today's United States Army Counterintelligence.

In World War I, many of the intelligence disciplines still in use today were deployed for the first time: aerial photography, signals intercept, interrogation teams, and counterintelligence agents.[1] Army Intelligence within the continental United States and intelligence in support of the forces overseas developed separately. Colonel Ralph Van Deman, Chief of the Military Intelligence Division of the War Department General Staff, directed much of his attention to the new field of negative intelligence, or counterintelligence.[2]

Van Deman founded the Corps of Intelligence Police to conduct undercover investigations of individuals and organizations. The Army was concerned about German spies and saboteurs. Van Deman was equally concerned about the loyalty of recent immigrants being drafted into service. He feared that the newly forming National Guard and National Army divisions might become “infested” with German agents and sympathizers. To protect the force, two soldiers within each company were appointed to secretly report on any suspicious activity, using the guidelines contained in a confidential pamphlet, “Provisional Counter-Espionage Instructions”.[3]

After World War I, the CIP was shrunk and its budget cut until, by 1941, it had a staff of only 16. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, the CIP was reorganized, expanded, and renamed the Counter Intelligence Corps.[4][5]

  1. ^ The History of the Counter Intelligence Corps
  2. ^ "Counter Intelligence Corps: History and Mission in WWII", U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, PA 17013-5008.
  3. ^ Sayer, Ian, and Douglas Botting. America's Secret Army: The Untold Story of the Counter Intelligence Corps. Grafton Books, 1989. ISBN 0-246-12690-6
  4. ^ Gilbert, James L., John P. Finnegan and Ann Bray. In the Shadow of the Sphynx: A History of Army Counterintelligence, History Office, Office of Strategic Management and Information, US Army Intelligence and Security Command, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, Dec 2005; pp. 1-22. ISBN 1234461366 (This file might take time to load.)
  5. ^ "CI Reader Volume 2 Chapter 1". irp.fas.org. Retrieved 2024-10-21.