MILITARY INTELLIGENCE

Army

Through World War I

Included here:

1. Van Deman

2. Generally

1. Van Deman

Ralph Henry Van Deman (1865-1952) is regarded as "the father of American military intelligence." He joined the Army in 1893 as a surgeon directly out of medical school, but in 1897 was assigned to the Military Intelligence Division of the Adjutant General's Office. He served in Cuba and the Philippines, and is credited with playing a "major part in transforming the MID of the Philippines into a true tactical intelligence and counterintelligence unit." Van Deman managed the Military Intelligence Section -- later Military Intelligence Branch -- of the War College Division during most of Word War I. He "was responsible for its growth, organization, and its extensive counterespionage and countersubversive operations within the United States." The Branch became the Military Intelligence Division of the War Department in August 1918, a few months after Van Deman's transfer to the G-2 division of General Pershing's staff. O'Toole, Encyclopedia, pp. 461-462.

See "Ralph Van Deman: Doctor, Lawyer, Intelligence Chief" at the Huachuca History Program under "Masters of the Intelligence Art": http://huachuca-www.army.mil/History/html/SiteMap.html.

Bigelow, Michael E. "Van Deman." Military Intelligence 16, no. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1990): 38-40.

Campbell, Kenneth J. "Major General Ralph H. Van Deman: Father of Modern American Military Intelligence." American Intelligence Journal 8 (Summer 1987): 13-19.

Powe, Marc B. "American Military Intelligence Comes of Age: A Sketch of a Man and His Times." Military Review 55, no. 12 (Dec. 1975): 17-30.

Van Deman, Ralph H. Ed., Ralph E. Weber. The Final Memorandum of Major General Ralph H. Van Deman, USA Ret. 1865-1952: Father of U.S. Military Intelligence. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 1988.

Van Deman, Ralph H. Memoirs of Major General R. H. Van Deman. Unpublished manuscript. Ft. Holabird, MD: U.S. Army CIC Center, 1950- 1956.

2. Generally

See "Dennis E. Nolan and U.S. Army Intelligence in Modern Warfare" at the Huachuca History Program under "Masters of the Intelligence Art": http://huachuca-www.army.mil/History/html/SiteMap.html. "As the man in charge of General John J. Pershing's intelligence for the American Expeditionary Forces, Dennis E. Nolan had to build an intelligence structure for combat forces in the field that would be responsive to the requirements of modern warfare and he had to do it fast under wartime conditions. It was a new test for the American Army. History has confirmed that he was the best man for the job."

See "Colonel Charles Young: Black Cavalryman, Huachuca Commander, and Early Intelligence Officer" at the Huachuca History Program under "Masters of the Intelligence Art": http://huachuca-www.army.mil/History/html/SiteMap.html. Young graduated from West Point in 1889 and served in Black Regiments and as a Militray Attache on multiple occasions until his death in Nigeria in 1922. His career was truly extraordinary.

Angevine, Robert G. "Mapping the Northern Frontier: Canada and the Origins of the U.S. Army's Military Information Division, 1885-1898." Intelligence and National Security 16, no. 3 (Autumn 2001): 121-145.

The U.S. Army "established its first official peacetime intelligence organization, the Military Information Division (MID), at least in part to collect intelligence enabling it to strike Canada in the event of conflict with Great Britain.... A careful examination of MID's leadership, methods of collecting information, intelligence objectives, organizational structure, and criteria for officer recruitment reveals that mapping the northern frontier and gathering intelligence on Canada were two of its most important activities."

Bethel, Elizabeth. "The Military Information Division: Origin of the Intelligence Division." Military Affairs 11 (Spring 1947): 17-24. [Petersen]

Bigelow, Michael E. "The First Steps: Battalion S2s in World War I." Military Intelligence 18, no. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1992): 26-31.

Bisher, Jamie. "A Traveling Salesman Fills a Crucial Gap." Military Intelligence 15, no. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1989): 36-37.

Brown, Richard C. "General Emory Upton -- the Army's Mahan." Military Affairs 17 (1953).

Churchill, Marlborough. "The Military Intelligence Division, General Staff." Journal of the United States Artillery 52 (Apr. 1920): 293-315.

Della-Giustina, John E. [CAPT/USA] "Intelligence in Peace Operations: The MID in Cuba, 1906-1909." Military Intelligence 20, no. 4 (Oct.-Dec. 1994): 18-22.

[Egolf, Richard]. Radio Intelligence on the Mexican Border, World War I: A Personal View. Ft. George G. Meade, MD: National Security Agency, Center for Cryptologic History, [n.d.].

"The Radio Intelligence Service (R.I.S.) was created during World War I by the U.S. Army Military Intelligence Branch for the sole purpose of supporting strategic intelligence through radio intercept. This was the first unit of its kind and its success helped to lay the foundation for the use of radio intercept by the U.S. military. The R.I.S. served mainly on the U.S./Mexican border, monitoring the threat of a Mexican-German alliance. Mr. Richard Egolf was one of the young men recruited for the R.I.S. in 1918. He served in McAllen, Texas, with Radio Tractor Units 33 and 34. In 1976, Mr. EgoIf was interviewed by members of the NSA History Department about his experiences in this earliest of signals intelligence organizations."

Halleck, H.W. "Military Espionage." American Journal of International Law 5 (Jul. 1911): 590-603. [Petersen]

Hatch, David A. "The Punitive Expedition: Military Reform and Communications Intelligence." Cryptologia 31, no. 1 (Jan. 2007): 38-45.

When Gen. John J. Pershing went into Mexico after Pancho Villa in March 1916, his expeditionary force included radio-equipped trucks to provide communications with Fort Sam Houston. By June 1916, at least one truck was being used to intercept "Mexican official radio broadcasts." A year after the U.S. force left Mexico in January 1917, the Army established 14 intercept stations along the border with Mexico. These units were demobilized in August 1919.

Holden, B.M., Jr. "Noah Phelps, Father of G-2." Military Review 36 (Jan. 1957): 12-14. [Petersen]

Linn, Brian M.

1. "Intelligence and Low-Intensity Conflict in the Philippine War, 1899-1902." Intelligence and National Security 6, no. 1 (Jan. 1991): 90-114.

"It is not too harsh to conclude that for much of the Philippine War, American intelligence was as diffuse, unconnected and disorganized as the resistance the soldiers encountered in the field.... Only at the end of the war, and then only in an area close to the DMI's [Division of Military Information; created by MacArthur in December 1900] headquarters, was the army's official intelligence agency able to play a major role in ending Filipino resistance." What occurred instead was that the officers in the field developed and implemented their own localized intelligence methods.

2. The U.S. Army and Counterinsurgency in the Philippine War, 1899-1902. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1989.

O'Toole, I&NS 6.1, calls Linn's work "the most authoritative study to date of this all-but-forgotten chapter of American military history.... Linn has selected four districts on ... Luzon for his study, and he concentrates on both the military and non-military aspects of the US Army's pacification program within each of them.... [A]s intelligence was an integral part of counter-insurgency operations, ... [the author] presents a far more detailed picture than has been published before."

Yardley, Herbert O. "Achievements of Cipher Bureau: MI-8 during the First World War." Cryptologia 8, no. 1 (Jan. 1984): 62-74.

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