World War I and the Origins of U.S. Military Intelligence

James L. Gilbert

In World War I and the Origins of U.S. Military Intelligence, military historian James L. Gilbert provides an authoritative overview of the birth of modern Army intelligence. Following the natural division of the intelligence war, which was fought on both the home front and overseas, Gilbert traces the development and use of intelligence and counterintelligence through the eyes of their principal architects: General Dennis E. Nolan and Colonel Ralph Van Deman.

Gilbert explores how on the home front, US Army counterintelligence faced both internal and external threats that began with the Army’s growing concerns over the loyalty of resident aliens who were being drafted into the ranks and soon evolved into the rooting out of enemy saboteurs and spies intent on doing great harm to America’s war effort. To achieve their goals, counterintelligence personnel relied upon major strides in the areas of code breaking and detection of secret inks. Overseas, the intelligence effort proved far more extensive in terms of resources and missions, even reaching into nearby neutral countries. Intelligence within the American Expeditionary Forces was heavily indebted to its Allied counterparts who not only provided an organizational blueprint but also veteran instructors and equipment needed to train newly arriving intelligence specialists. Rapid advances by American intelligence were also made possible by the appointment of competent leaders and the recruitment of highly motivated and skilled personnel; likewise, the Army’s decision to assign the bulk of its linguists to support intelligence proved critical. World War I would witness the linkage between intelligence and emerging technologies—from the use of cameras in aircraft to the intercept of enemy radio transmissions. Equally significant was the introduction of new intelligence disciplines—from exploitation of captured equipment to the translation of enemy documents. These and other functions that emerged from World War I would continue to the present to provide military intelligence with the essential tools necessary to support the Army and the nation.

World War I and the Origins of U.S. Military Intelligence is ideal not only for students and scholars of military history and World War I, but will also appeal to any reader interested in how modern intelligence operations first evolved.

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 272 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-0-8108-8459-5 • Hardback • September 2012 • $113.00 • (£87.00)

978-1-4422-4918-9 • Paperback • March 2015 • $53.00 • (£41.00)

978-0-8108-8460-1 • eBook • September 2012 • $50.00 • (£38.00)

Subjects: History / Military / World War I, History / Military / United States, Political Science / Intelligence & Espionage

World War I and the Origins of U.S. Military Intelligence

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Summary

In World War I and the Origins of U.S. Military Intelligence, military historian James L. Gilbert provides an authoritative overview of the birth of modern Army intelligence. Following the natural division of the intelligence war, which was fought on both the home front and overseas, Gilbert traces the development and use of intelligence and counterintelligence through the eyes of their principal architects: General Dennis E. Nolan and Colonel Ralph Van Deman.

Gilbert explores how on the home front, US Army counterintelligence faced both internal and external threats that began with the Army’s growing concerns over the loyalty of resident aliens who were being drafted into the ranks and soon evolved into the rooting out of enemy saboteurs and spies intent on doing great harm to America’s war effort. To achieve their goals, counterintelligence personnel relied upon major strides in the areas of code breaking and detection of secret inks. Overseas, the intelligence effort proved far more extensive in terms of resources and missions, even reaching into nearby neutral countries. Intelligence within the American Expeditionary Forces was heavily indebted to its Allied counterparts who not only provided an organizational blueprint but also veteran instructors and equipment needed to train newly arriving intelligence specialists. Rapid advances by American intelligence were also made possible by the appointment of competent leaders and the recruitment of highly motivated and skilled personnel; likewise, the Army’s decision to assign the bulk of its linguists to support intelligence proved critical. World War I would witness the linkage between intelligence and emerging technologies—from the use of cameras in aircraft to the intercept of enemy radio transmissions. Equally significant was the introduction of new intelligence disciplines—from exploitation of captured equipment to the translation of enemy documents. These and other functions that emerged from World War I would continue to the present to provide military intelligence with the essential tools necessary to support the Army and the nation.

World War I and the Origins of U.S. Military Intelligence is ideal not only for students and scholars of military history and World War I, but will also appeal to any reader interested in how modern intelligence operations first evolved.

Details

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Pages: 272 • Trim: 6¼ x 9¼

978-0-8108-8459-5 • Hardback • September 2012 • $113.00 • (£87.00)

978-1-4422-4918-9 • Paperback • March 2015 • $53.00 • (£41.00)

978-0-8108-8460-1 • eBook • September 2012 • $50.00 • (£38.00)

Subjects: History / Military / World War I, History / Military / United States, Political Science / Intelligence & Espionage

Author

For forty years, James L. Gilbert served as the military historian responsible for documenting the role played by intelligence in peacetime and war. He is credited with directing the publication of a series of official histories that would, for the first time, trace the development of military intelligence and highlight its operational achievements.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Preface
Chapter 1. Steps to War
The Signal Corps
The War in Europe
Two Captains
Small Steps by the Signal Corps
The First Shots in the Intelligence War
An Early Test South of the Border
Chapter 2. America Enters the War
Military Intelligence Section
The Bigger Picture
A Counterintelligence Problem
District of Columbia
Corps of Intelligence Police
Countersubversion
The Civilian Sector
The Advent of Yardley
Reports and More Reports
Censorship
An Interim Judgment
Chapter 3. Intelligence and the AEF
The Information Division
A Downed Airship
Secret Service Division
Topography Division
Censorship Division
New Year’s Eve
Chapter 4. Securing the Home Front
Organizing Counterintelligence
Counterintelligence in Action
Intelligence Gathering
Secret Inks
More Reports
Finishing the Course
Propaganda
Attachés
Code Making
Negative Branch
The Final Report
Chapter 5. Tested Under Fire
Intelligence in the Field
Intelligence within Division
The Corps
Army Headquarters
GHQ: Filling the Void
Stars and Stripes
Combat Artists
Securing the Force
Making the Airwaves Secure
Course of the War
Chapter 6. Coming to a Close
First Army
Arrival of Van Deman
St. Mihiel
Meuse-Argonne
Security
The Use of Intelligence
Peace Talks
Final Evaluation
Chapter 7. The Aftermath
Peace Conference
Sideshows
At Home
A Glimpse into the Future
Appendix A: MI Divisions in the War Department
Appendix B: Radio Tractor Units
Appendix C: G2 Organization at GHQ
Appendix D: First Army Observation/Photo Air Service
Appendix E: First Army Signals Intelligence Stations
Appendix F: First Army Security Service Monitoring Stations
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Reviews

Outside of the combat arms--the infantry, artillery, and armor elements--the US public has little idea of the complexity of the US Army. One of the least-known but most significant branches is military intelligence. Gilbert, a former staff historian with the Army Security Agency, examines the evolution of the intelligence branch in this new study. Up to the 20th century, the Army's intelligence operations centered on the cavalry and Indian Scouts who conducted reconnaissance, even as late as 1916 in Mexico. By then, however, the US Army realized something had to be done to modernize their capability to collect information and refine data for US field commanders. Gilbert's groundbreaking analysis offers readers a rare glimpse into the growth of military intelligence, including counterintelligence, propaganda, communication security, and code breaking. On a tactical level, the army gathered information concerning the German order of battle along the Western Front. From that humble start, modern military intelligence has advanced technologically to become one of the critical components of the modern US Army. Gilbert's study is indispensible for anyone interested in the early history of US military intelligence. Summing Up: Essential. All levels/libraries.
— Choice Reviews

This book is highly recommended for historians, libraries with military history collections, and others interested in this aspect of U.S. military history.
— American Reference Books Annual

As World War I broke out, the U.S. Army was but a constabulary army lacking the staff officers required to organize and support a European style army. One glaring deficiency was its inability to gather and evaluate military intelligence, both at the strategic and tactical levels, and undertake the protection of its own operational plans. Thanks to President Woodrow Wilson’s mandate that the War Department would be neutral in both thought and actions concerning the war in Europe, the Army found itself at the beginning of 1917 without adequate intelligence staff resources to meet the needs of modern warfare. The author of this book tells a riveting story of how the Army overcame this intelligence gathering and evaluating deficiency and created, between April 1917 and November 1918, a competent internal Military Intelligence Division. . . . It is a book well worth reading and pondering.
— The Journal of America's Military Past

As an organizational history, Gilbert's book is superb. He follows both Nolan and Deman throughout their careers in intelligence—Deman as the head of MIS, Nolan as the American Expeditionary Force's G2, or head of Intelligence. ... Where the book really shines is in the discussion of counterespionage within the United States, which Gilbert says was "without a doubt, MID's greatest contribution." He lays out a number of sabotage plots that MID agents, many of them ex-policemen, defeated or even prevented. This particular aspect of World War I is far less known than the more traditional histories of combat overseas. ... [I]t is an excellent resource for more seasoned historians or for graduate students who already have a strong grasp of World War I and the basics of intelligence gathering and dissemination.
— H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online

James Gilbert’s new book is a welcome addition to the material that has been published in recent years on the evolution of US intelligence processes and organizations during the 20th century.
— Intelligence in Public Literature

Gilbert's World War I and the Origins of U.S. Military Intelligence . . . is a valuable contribution.
— Journal Of Intelligence History

Gilbert deserves credit for tracking down sometimes obscure and hard-to-obtain material. World War I and the Origins of U.S. Military Intelligence will undoubtedly be a useful introduction for the military historian unfamiliar with intelligence history, or the cryptologist unfamiliar with the broader subject of military intelligence in World War I.
— Cryptologia

James Gilbert provides a fine accounting of the frustrating beginnings of Army Military Intelligence. His descriptions provide the reader a good look at the successes and failures of an organization just beginning to come into its own.
— The Strategy Bridge