Military Intelligence --this week in history. 13 December 1941

By U.S. ArmyDecember 13, 2012

Counterintelligence Corps agents
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

Fort Huachuca, AZ. - The Corps of Intelligence Police, or CIP, was established in 1917 to provide counterespionage support to the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I. The first 50 agents who reported to France performed security and counter-espionage work, as well as investigative work for the Criminal Investigative Division.

After the war ended, the organization continued, in a greatly reduced form, with a mission of investigating all individuals who were suspected of operating against the military establishment and reporting on radical activities in political and industrial fields. This was a hefty assignment for a group of no more than 30 men by 1922.

By January 1941, Europe was at war again, and the very real possibility of American involvement was imminent. A CIP Investigators School was established at the Army War College, and a Technical Manual, TM 30-215, was published, creating a definite and consistent procedure of training for all personnel in the Corps.

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, launching American forces into World War II, the mission of the CIP changed. A letter from the Adjutant General dated Dec. 13, 1941, changed the name of the CIP to the Counterintelligence Corps, or CIC, to be effective Jan. 1, 1942.

The name change signified a shift in mission from primarily a police function to that of a counterintelligence organization. At the same time, the CIP Investigators Training School, which had been moved to Chicago from Fort McNair, Washington D.C., in November, was renamed the CIC Investigators Training School.

By the end of the war, the CIC's authorized strength was 7,500 agents.

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