Race, War, and Surveillance: African Americans and the United States Government During World War I by Ellis Mark

Author:Ellis, Mark [Ellis, Mark]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
Tags: World War I, General, United States, History, African American & Black Studies, Wars & Conflicts, Ethnic Studies, American, Social Science
ISBN: 9780253109323
Google: vNCmXlv_5zAC
Amazon: B001D21XKA
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2001-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

Six

Diplomacy and Demobilization,

1918–1919

In the ¤nal months of the war, military intelligence in Washington was reorganized, largely on the initiative of Gen. Peyton C. March, who had begun a thorough shake-up of the General Staff on his return to the United States from France in March 1918.1 His later assertion that when he arrived the Military Intelligence Branch was no more than “a minor appendage of the War Plans Division” was inaccurate, but his changes did enable intelligence of¤cers to initiate new projects and communicate more effectively with the rest of the War Department and other federal agencies. He replaced Ralph Van Deman as director of military intelligence with Col.

Marlborough Churchill, a Harvard-educated regular of¤cer who had been part of the U.S. mission to France when Congress declared war and afterward a member of March’s staff at the American artillery training center at Valdahon. March then rearranged the General Staff into four full-®edged divisions: Operations; Military Intelligence; Purchase, Storage and Traf¤c; and War Plans.2 Thus, on August 26, 1918, the MIB became the Military Intelligence Division (MID) and Churchill was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.3 From late November 1918 to April 1919, Col. John M.

Dunn, normally chief of the Positive Branch of the MID, served as the acting director of military intelligence during Churchill’s absence in France, where he joined Ralph Van Deman on attachment to the U.S. Commission to Negotiate Peace.4

After the reorganization, matters relating to “Negro Subversion” and

“Negro Soldier Problems” were turned over to Capt. James E. Cutler and the Military Morale Section of the MID until October 1918, when a separate Morale Branch of the General Staff was established under the command of a Medical Corps of¤cer, Brig. Gen. Edward L. Munson.5 Thereafter, information on blacks was gathered by both the MID and the Morale Branch, with the latter concentrating on troops, so that in December 1918 Cutler described himself as working of¤cially within the Morale Branch, but “act-183

184

Race, War, and Surveillance

ing more or less in the capacity of Liaison Of¤cer with MID.”6 Morale Branch reports on black radical activity were referred to the MID, which maintained the ¤les on that subject. Regional intelligence of¤cers across the U.S. continued to send information on race to the MID, whence it might be forwarded to the Morale Branch.

Within a fortnight of the announcement of the Armistice, MID of¤cers were instructed to undertake no new investigations into disloyalty or enemy alien agitation among the civilian population. Information on such matters was to be turned over to the Department of Justice.7 Military intelligence operations in the United States were accordingly run down in December 1918, and existing investigations were concluded. The General Staff decided to reduce the number of of¤cers assigned to the MID from almost 300 to just 103, some of whom would be of¤cers returning from Europe.

On January 24, 1919, the MID was ordered to end its investigation of civilians, although it was allowed to receive information from individuals who were not connected with military intelligence. As a

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.