Counterintelligence Corps
The Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC) was a
Origins
The CIC had its origins in the
World War II
The looming threat of war in the late 1930s brought an expansion of the CIP back to its World War I levels, and the entry of the United States into
As most CIC agents in the field (as well as Military Intelligence Service in Europe) held only non-commissioned officer rank— corporals and various grades of sergeant— they wore either plain clothes, or uniforms without badges of rank; in place of rank insignia, and so as not to be perceived as privates, agents typically wore officer "U.S." collar insignia. They were instructed to identify themselves only as "Agent" or "Special Agent" as appropriate, in order to facilitate their work. These practices continue among modern counterintelligence agents.[3]
Within the U.S. the CIC, in collaboration with the
However the use of informants within the Army became politically controversial, and CIC was forced to curtail its activities. In particular, the CIC was ordered to cease its domestic investigations, to destroy its investigative records, and to ship its agents out to overseas theaters.[5] The reason for this sudden and unprecedented expulsion has never been clarified. One leading theory was expressed in the official history of the Corps, "the speed [of these events] left little doubt that someone—possibly Communists who still held key positions in government—was determined to halt CIC investigative activities in the United States".[6] Another possible explanation is that the CIC mistakenly bugged the hotel room of Eleanor Roosevelt and incurred the President’s wrath. In any event, the CIC protected the investigative records it had so painstakingly accumulated. According to Sayer and Botting (p. 47) "When the command was given to cease any investigations of known or suspected Communists and destroy all files on such persons immediately, eight of the nine Corps Area Commanders took the remarkable step of disobeying this order". According to the official history of the Corps, this information proved highly valuable in controlling communism: "the information acquired by CIC from May 1941 to September 1945 regarding communism and its adherents played a major part in keeping communism under control in the United States ever since".[7]
Manhattan Project
CIC units were also involved in providing security for the Manhattan Project, including duty as couriers of fissionable bomb materials from Los Alamos, New Mexico to Tinian. They also operated in 1945 at the United Nations Organizing Conference in San Francisco, over which Alger Hiss presided as secretary-general.[8] Three years later, when Alger Hiss was accused of being a Communist and filed a libel suit against his accuser, his lawyers unwittingly hired an undercover CIC Special Agent as their Chief Investigator to help prepare his libel suit.[9]
In the
, searching for German personnel and research in atomic weapons, rockets and cryptography.Post-war operations
Operation Paperclip
At the end of World War II CIC agents were successful in an operation called "Paper Clip" that obtained German rocket scientists for America before the Soviets took them. This action aided in the success of the American rocket development program and resultant adventure into space. CIC actively continued counterintelligence activities in the Cold War, Korean War and Vietnam War.
Project Happiness
After the war, in West Germany, the CIC also directed the so-called "Project Happiness" that sought to recruit former Gestapo and SD members as informants to infiltrate East German communist parties, such as the SED and KPD.
Other activities
In the immediate post-war period, the CIC operated in the occupied countries, particularly Japan, Germany and Austria, countering the black market, and searching for and arresting notable members of the previous regime. Despite the problem of demobilization, with many experienced agents returning to civilian life, CIC became the leading intelligence organization in the American occupation zones, and very soon found themselves facing a new enemy in the emerging Cold War.
The outbreak of the Korean War in June 1950 meant that CIC was once again involved in a military conflict, and it underwent a major expansion. However this proved to be CIC's last chance to enjoy resources and recruits.
The proliferation of intelligence agencies had meant duplication of effort and disputes over responsibility, so in 1961 the CIC ceased to exist as an independent organization, as it was rolled into the Army's new Military Intelligence Branch.
While serving in the U.S. Army in the 1960s, Christopher H. Pyle learned that "Army intelligence had 1500 plain clothes agents watching every demonstration of 20 people or more throughout the United States". Pyle’s disclosures led to Congressional investigations and a crackdown on what was regarded as the Army's investigative excesses. This ended what advocates regarded as the peak of counterintelligence efficiency: "At the height of the disturbance period, a CIC agent could get a report from the street to Fort Holabird HQ in 20 minutes, from practically any city in the U.S., seconds or brief minutes later the report was in Operations Center in a lower basement of the Pentagon".[10]
The "ratline" controversy
One of CIC's operations in post-war Europe was the operation of a "
A Department of Justice investigation also uncovered the CIC's dealings with Father Krunoslav Draganović, a Croatian cleric based in Rome, who while working for CIC, also operated his own clandestine rat-line to transport Ustaše war criminals to Latin America.
A further report in 1988 also examined the CIC's use of Nazi war criminals and collaborators as informants in the years after World War II. In June 1988, Office of Special Investigations within the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice issued a public report which revealed that "at least 14 suspected Nazi war criminals, a number of whom likely were involved in the murder of Jews in occupied Europe, had been employed as intelligence informants by the CIC in Austria."[11]
Notable CIC agents
- Leroy Anderson, composer
- Donald L. Barlett, journalist
- Noel Behn, writer and theatrical producer
- Willy Brandt, later German chancellor[12]
- John F. Collins, Mayor of Boston
- Miles Copeland Jr., musician
- Philip J. Corso, Lieutenant Colonel at Roswell, New Mexico
- J. Griffin Crump, editor, The Journal of Intergroup Relations
- William E. Dannemeyer, California congressman
- Ahn Doo-hee, lieutenant, Assassin
- Foxtrot, Art Dealer
- Mike Gravel, Alaska senator
- Bill Hartman, athlete
- Anthony Hecht, poet
- Clint Hill. former United States Secret Service Agent
- Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State
- Arthur Komori, District Court judge, Military Intelligence Hall of Fame inductee.
- Morton Kondracke, journalist
- Ed Kemper and Patty Hearst[13]
- Robie Macauley, editor and novelist
- John J. McFall, California congressman
- William A. McNeill, DET 430th CIC
- Ib Melchior, film producer
- Horace Miner, anthropologist[14]
- George J. Mitchell, Maine senator
- Tom Moody, Mayor of Columbus, Ohio
- William Hughes Mulligan, Federal judge
- Walter Pincus, journalist
- Cruz Reynoso, lawyer and jurist
- Richard Sakakida, USAF Lt Col after war, Military Intelligence Hall of Fame inductee.
- J. D. Salinger, novelist
- Robert Saxton Taylor, Library Officer
- Jerry Seltzer, roller derby promoter
- Richard A. Snyder, Pennsylvania State Senator
- Bob Shamansky, Ohio congressman
- Michel Thomas, Linguist, Language Teacher
- Waldo Tobler, geography professor
- William Lewis Uanna, Security Expert
See also
- Corps of Intelligence Police
- Military Intelligence Corps
- The History of the Counter Intelligence Corps
- United States Army Counterintelligence
Footnotes
- ^ "COUNTER-ESPIONAGE IS REVIVED BY ARMY: Corps Reorganized to Combat Sabotage and Disloyalty," The New York Times, 13 January 1942; p. 11.
- ^ "Counter Intelligence Corps: History and Mission in WWII", U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle Barracks, PA 17013-5008.
- ^ Counter Intelligence in World War II
- ^ The quotation is on p. 1093. For an account of CIC encroachment into territory designated by the chapter World War II: Expanding the Boundaries.
- ^ On 5 November 1943 the Army ordered all CIC agents out of Washington, D.C. On the following day, the Army Inspector General submitted a devastating report on the CIC. In February 1944 the position of Chief, Counter Intelligence Corps was abolished and CIC Headquarters was dissolved.
- ^ The History of the Counter Intelligence Corps, p. 70.
- ^ The History of the Counter Intelligence Corps, volume 7, p. 1123.
- ^ For the account of one agent working undercover at the San Francisco conference and photos of fellow agents there, see Special Agent Leonard L. (Igor) Gorin "United Nations Formation 1945—CIC Security Role". Golden Sphinx, Serial Issue #2004-3, Winter 2004-5, pp. 16–20.
- ^ See "Bringing Alger Hiss to Justice" by Stephen Salant.
- ^ The quotation is from Ann Bray, one of the contributors to The History of the Counter Intelligence Corps. At the time of her death, she was writing a book on the Corps and this passage from its last chapter is quoted in Duval Edwards' account on pp. 281–2.
- ^ "Implementation of the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act: An Interim Report to Congress," October 1999
- ^ Wiegrefe, Klaus (17 December 2021). "(S+) Informant »O-35-VIII«: Willy Brandt war für den US-Geheimdienst aktiv". Der Spiegel.
- ^ "Donald Lunde, psychiatrist in infamous Bay Area cases, dies at 70". 25 December 2007.
- ^ "Horace Miner collection, 1941-1992 (majority within 1941-1945) - University of Michigan William L. Clements Library - University of Michigan Finding Aids". findingaids.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 15 January 2024.
Sources
- CIC Records: A Valuable Tool for Researchers (scroll down)
- Counter Intelligence Corps History and Mission in World War II (PDF)
Further reading
- Edwards, Duval A. Spy Catchers of the U.S. Army in the War with Japan (The Unfinished Story of the Counterintelligence Corps). Red Apple Publishing, 1994. ISBN 1-880222-14-0
- Gilbert, James L., John P. Finnegan and Ann Bray. In the Shadow of the Sphinx: A History of Army Counterintelligence, History Office, Office of Strategic Management and Information, US Army Intelligence and Security Command, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, Dec 2005. ISBN 1234461366(This file might take time to load.)
- ISBN 978-0-300-04668-7.
- Koudelka, Edward R. Counter Intelligence: The Conflict and the Conquest: Recollections of a World War II Agent in Europe. Ranger Associates, 1986. ISBN 0-934588-09-0
- ISBN 0-89141-444-4
- Mendelsohn, John (1989). Covert Warfare: Intelligence, Counterintelligence and Military Deception During the World War II Era)
- Milano, James V., and Patrick Brogan. Soldiers, Spies, and the Rat Line: America's Undeclared War Against the Soviets. Potomac Books (2000) ISBN 1-57488-304-6
- Myers, Larry, Hey Nazis, I'm Coming For You: Memories of Counter Intelligence Corps Activities in WWII. Gainsway Press (2004). ISBN 1930807104
- ISBN 0-246-12690-6
- Schwartzwalder, John, We Caught Spies: Adventures of an American Counter Intelligence Agent in Europe, Duell, Sloan and Pearce (1946).
- Selby, Scott Andrew. The Axmann Conspiracy: The Nazi Plan for a Fourth Reich and How the U.S. Army Defeated It. Berkley (Penguin), Sept. 2012. ISBN 0425252701
- Vaughn, Bradley, Counterspy Mission in World War II: Recollections and Impressions of a United States Army Counter Intelligence Corps Special Agent, Professional Pr (September 1993). ISBN 188036557X