The Counter Intelligence Corps (Army CIC) was a

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and early

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because t ...

intelligence agency An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives. Means of inf ...

within the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, ...

consisting of highly trained special agents. Its role was taken over by the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps in 1961 and, in 1967, by the United States Army Intelligence Agency. Its functions are now performed by its modern-day descendant organization;

United States Army Counterintelligence United States Army Counterintelligence (ACI) is the component of United States Army Military Intelligence which conducts counterintelligence activities to detect, identify, assess, counter, exploit and/or neutralize adversarial, foreign intellige ...

. The National Counter Intelligence Corps Association (NCICA), a veterans' association, was established in the years immediately following World War II by Military Intelligence agents who had served in every area of military and domestic operations. The organization meets annually. Its newsletter, the ''Golden Sphinx'', is published quarterly. Counterintelligence corps badge

Origins

The CIC had its origins in the

Corps of Intelligence Police The Corps of Intelligence Police (CIP) was founded by Ralph Van Deman in 1917 as an intelligence agency within the United States Army, and the War Department. In World War I, many of the intelligence disciplines still in use today were deployed fo ...

founded by Ralph Van Deman in 1917. This organization, operating within the USA and on attachment to the American Expeditionary Force in France, at its peak numbered over 600 men. However, in the post-war period, the policy of isolationism, retrenchment of military spending and economic depression meant that by the mid-1930s its numbers had fallen to fewer than 20 personnel.

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

in December 1941 brought an even greater expansion, and a new name. On 13 December 1941 the

Adjutant General An adjutant general is a military chief administrative officer. France In Revolutionary France, the was a senior staff officer, effectively an assistant to a general officer. It was a special position for lieutenant-colonels and colonels in staf ...

of the Army issued an order renaming the CIP as the Counter Intelligence Corps, effective from 1 January 1942. A new complement of 543 officers and 4,431 non-commissioned agents was authorized. The CIC recruited men with legal, police or other investigative backgrounds, and particularly looked for men with foreign language skills. Special CIC teams were created during World War II in Europe, in large part from the Military Intelligence Service personnel (see

Ritchie Boys The Ritchie Boys were a special collection of soldiers, with sizable numbers of German-Austrian recruits, of Military Intelligence Service officers and enlisted men of World War II who were trained at Camp Ritchie in Washington County, Maryland. ...

). However, there were never enough of these and local interpreters were often recruited. 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. Within the U.S. the CIC, in collaboration with the

Provost Marshal General The provost marshal general (pronounced "provo") is a United States Army staff position that handles investigations of U.S. Army personnel. It is the highest-ranking provost marshal position in the U.S. Army, reporting to the Chief of Staff of ...

and the

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

(FBI), carried out background checks on military personnel having access to classified material, investigations of possible sabotage and subversion, and allegations of disloyalty, especially those directed against Americans of Japanese, Italian or German ancestry. Despite the prohibitions in the delimitation agreement with the FBI, the CIC ended up devoting considerable effort to civilian investigations. As Volume 7 of ''

The History of the Counter Intelligence Corps ''The History of the Counter Intelligence Corps'' was a classified 30 volume book prepared in the late 1950s by Major Ann Bray and others at the United States Army Intelligence Center and printed in 1959. The document contains the history of the U ...

'' explains: "Espionage and sabotage, being enemy directed, involved more than one person. Usually there were a number in the chain extending from the agent in the United States back through cutouts and couriers to the enemy country. This inevitably involved civilians with military suspects and the case became connected with the FBI. The military aspect became minor, and major investigative effort was in the civilian community to locate the higher-ups who presumably were controlling more than one agent." 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. The reason for this sudden and unprecedented expulsion has never been clarified. One leading theory was expressed in the

official history An official history is a work of history which is sponsored, authorised or endorsed by its subject. The term is most commonly used for histories which are produced for a government. The term also applies to commissions from non-state bodies includin ...

of the Corps, "the speed f these eventsleft little doubt that someone—possibly Communists who still held key positions in government—was determined to halt CIC investigative activities in the United States". 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

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".

Manhattan Project

CIC units were also involved in providing security for the

Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...

, including duty as couriers of fissionable bomb materials from

Los Alamos, New Mexico Los Alamos is an census-designated place in Los Alamos County, New Mexico, United States, that is recognized as the development and creation place of the atomic bomb—the primary objective of the Manhattan Project by Los Alamos National Labo ...

Tinian Tinian ( or ; old Japanese name: 天仁安島, ''Tenian-shima'') is one of the three principal islands of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Together with uninhabited neighboring Aguiguan, it forms Tinian Municipality, one of the ...

. They also operated in 1945 at the United Nations Organizing Conference in San Francisco, over which Alger Hiss presided as secretary-general. 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. In the European and

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

theaters of operations CIC deployed detachments at all levels. These detachments provided tactical intelligence about the enemy from captured documents, interrogations of captured troops, and from para-military and civilian sources. They were also involved in providing security for military installations and staging areas, located enemy agents, and acted to counter

stay-behind In a stay-behind operation, a country places secret operatives or organizations in its own territory, for use in case an enemy occupies that territory. If this occurs, the operatives would then form the basis of a resistance movement or act as sp ...

networks. They also provided training to combat units in security, censorship, the seizure of documents, and the dangers of booby traps. In some cases CIC agents such as

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (; ; born Heinz Alfred Kissinger, May 27, 1923) is a German-born American politician, diplomat, and geopolitical consultant who served as United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor under the presid ...

found themselves acting as the ''de facto'' military government on the occupation of large towns before the arrival of

Allied Military Government for Occupied Territories The Allied Military Government of Occupied Territories (originally abbreviated AMGOT, later AMG) was the form of military rule administered by Allied forces during and after World War II within European territories they occupied. Notable AMGOT ...

(AMGOT) officers. As the war in Europe came to a close, CIC were involved in the Operations Alsos,

Paperclip A paper clip (or paperclip) is a tool used to hold sheets of paper together, usually made of steel wire bent to a looped shape (though some are covered in plastic). Most paper clips are variations of the ''Gem'' type introduced in the 1890s or e ...

and

TICOM TICOM (Target Intelligence Committee) was a secret Allied project formed in World War II to find and seize German intelligence assets, particularly in the field of cryptology and signals intelligence. It operated alongside other Western Allied ...

, searching for German personnel and research in atomic weapons, rockets and cryptography. Recruits after World War II included

Klaus Barbie Nikolaus "Klaus" Barbie (25 October 1913 – 25 September 1991) was a German operative of the SS and SD who worked in Vichy France during World War II. He became known as the "Butcher of Lyon" for having personally tortured prisoners—primar ...

, also known as the 'Butcher from Lyon', a former Gestapo member and war criminal.

Post-war operations

Operation Paperclip

At the end of World War II CIC agents were successful in an operation called “

Paper Clip A paper clip (or paperclip) is a tool used to hold sheets of paper together, usually made of steel wire bent to a looped shape (though some are covered in plastic). Most paper clips are variations of the ''Gem'' type introduced in the 1890s or e ...

” 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.

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

. The outbreak of the

Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

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 Fort Holabird was a United States Army post in the city of Baltimore, Maryland, active from 1918 to 1973. History Fort Holabird was located in the southeast corner of Baltimore and northwest of the suburban developments of Dundalk, Maryland, in s ...

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".

The "ratline" controversy

One of CIC's operations in post-war Europe was the operation of a " rat-line" – a conduit for spiriting informants and defectors out of the Soviet Zones of Occupation to safety in South America, via Italy, with false identities paid for by CIC. However, in 1983 the arrest of former SS officer

in Bolivia raised questions as to how the "Butcher of Lyon" had escaped. It was then revealed that Barbie had worked for CIC from 1947, and in 1951 had been provided with the means of escape in return for his services as an agent and informant. A

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...

investigation also uncovered the CIC's dealings with Father

Krunoslav Draganović Krunoslav Stjepan Draganović (30 October 1903 – 5 July 1983) was a Bosnian Croat Roman Catholic priest associated with the ratlines which aided the escape of Ustaše war criminals from Europe after World War II while he was living and working ...

, a Croatian cleric based in Rome, who while working for CIC, also operated his own clandestine rat-line to transport

Ustaše The Ustaše (), also known by anglicised versions Ustasha or Ustashe, was a Croatian fascist and ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Move ...

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."

Notable CIC agents

Leroy Anderson Leroy Anderson ( ) (June 29, 1908 – May 18, 1975) was an American composer of short, light concert pieces, many of which were introduced by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. John Williams described him as ...

, composer * Donald L. Barlett, journalist * Noel Behn, writer and theatrical producer *

Willy Brandt Willy Brandt (; born Herbert Ernst Karl Frahm; 18 December 1913 – 8 October 1992) was a German politician and statesman who was leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) from 1964 to 1987 and served as the chancellor of West Ge ...

, later German chancellor * John F. Collins, Mayor of

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

* 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 William Edwin Dannemeyer (September 22, 1929 – July 9, 2019) was a conservative Politics of the United States, American politician, activist, and author, known for his LGBT rights opposition, opposition to LGBT rights. He served as United State ...

, California congressman *Foxtrot, Art Dealer *

Mike Gravel Maurice Robert "Mike" Gravel ( ; May 13, 1930 – June 26, 2021) was an American politician and writer who served as a United States Senator from Alaska from 1969 to 1981 as a member of the Democratic Party, and who later in life twice ran for ...

, Alaska senator *

Bill Hartman William Coleman Hartman, Jr. (March 17, 1915 – March 16, 2006) was an American football running back in the National Football League for the Washington Redskins before World War II. He graduated from the University of Georgia in 1937 with a B. ...

, athlete *

Anthony Hecht Anthony Evan Hecht (January 16, 1923 – October 20, 2004) was an American poet. His work combined a deep interest in form with a passionate desire to confront the horrors of 20th century history, with the World War II, Second World War, in which ...

, poet * Clint Hill. former United States Secret Service Agent *

, Secretary of State * Arthur Komori, District Court judge,

Military Intelligence Hall of Fame The Military Intelligence Hall of Fame is a hall of fame established by the Military Intelligence Corps of the United States Army in 1988 to honor soldiers and civilians who have made exceptional contributions to military intelligence. The hall is ...

inductee. *

Morton Kondracke Morton Matt Kondracke (; born April 28, 1939) is an American political commentator and journalist. He became well known due to a long stint as a panelist on ''The McLaughlin Group''. Kondracke worked for several major publications, serving for twen ...

, journalist *

Robie Macauley Robie Mayhew Macauley (May 31, 1919 – November 20, 1995) was an American editor, novelist and critic whose literary career spanned more than 50 years. Biography Early life Robie Macauley was born on May 31, 1919, in Grand Rapids, Michigan ...

, editor and novelist * John J. McFall, California congressman *William A. McNeill, DET 430th CIC *

Ib Melchior Ib Jørgen Melchior (September 17, 1917 – March 14, 2015) was a Danish-American novelist, short-story writer, film producer, film director, and screenwriter of low-budget American science fiction movies, most of them released by American Inter ...

, film producer *

George J. Mitchell George John Mitchell Jr. (born August 20, 1933) is an American politician, diplomat, and lawyer. A leading member of the Democratic Party, he served as a United States senator from Maine from 1980 to 1995, and as Senate Majority Leader from 19 ...

, Maine senator *

Tom Moody Thomas Masson Moody (born 2 October 1965) is a former Australian international cricketer and current Director of Cricket of Sri Lanka Cricket. He ended his long tenure with the Indian Premier League team Sunrisers Hyderabad in August 2022 and ...

, Mayor of Columbus, Ohio * William Hughes Mulligan, Federal judge *

Walter Pincus Walter Haskell Pincus (born December 24, 1932) is an American national security journalist. He reported for ''The Washington Post'' until the end of 2015. He has won several prizes including a Polk Award in 1977, a television Emmy in 1981, and ...

, journalist *

Cruz Reynoso Cruz Reynoso (May 2, 1931 – May 7, 2021) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist. Reynoso was the first Chicano Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court, serving from 1982 to 1987. He also served on the California Third D ...

, lawyer and jurist * Richard Sakakida, USAF Lt Col after war,

inductee. * J. D. Salinger, novelist *

Jerry Seltzer Gerald Edwin "Jerry" Seltzer (June 3, 1932 – July 1, 2019) was the second and final owner of the original Roller Derby league. The league and the sport of roller derby were created in 1935 in Chicago by Leo Seltzer, Jerry's father. Jerry as ...

, roller derby promoter *

Richard A. Snyder Richard A. Snyder (March 26, 1910 – June 17, 1992) was an American politician from Pennsylvania who served as a Republican member of the Pennsylvania State Senate for the 13th district from 1961 to 1984. Early life and education Snyder was b ...

, Pennsylvania State Senator *

Bob Shamansky Robert Norton Shamansky (April 18, 1927 – August 11, 2011) was an American Democratic politician and attorney from the state of Ohio. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives for a single term from 1981 until 1983. In 2018, the ''Jewis ...

, Ohio congressman *

Michel Thomas Michel Thomas (born Moniek Kroskof, February 3, 1914 – January 8, 2005) was a polyglot linguist, and decorated war veteran. He survived imprisonment in several different Nazi concentration camps after serving in the Maquis of the French ...

, Linguist, Language Teacher * William Lewis Uanna, Security Expert * Dr. Donald Lunde, psychiatrist of Ed Kemper and Patty Hearst

Footnotes

Sources

CIC Records: A Valuable Tool for Researchers
(scroll down)
Counter Intelligence Corps History and Mission in World War II (PDF)

External links

441st Counterintelligence and Military Intelligence Official History

{{Authority control Branches of the United States Army Defunct United States intelligence agencies Counterintelligence agencies Military intelligence agencies