With the outbreak of World War I in Europe in August 1914, the agents of the Bureau of Investigation suddenly had their hands full to investigate German intrigue. Initially, the German government sought to smuggle German reservists to the Fatherland and supply the remnants of the Imperial fleet from US shores. As American military supplies to the Allies showed effects on the battlefields of Europe, German agents weaponized the Mexican Revolution, infiltrated the labor and peace movements, and attacked US manufacturing and shipping. In a steep learning curve, the Bureau moved from law enforcement to intelligence and counterintelligence work.
“The federal Bureau of Investigation before Hoover, Volume II: The fBI and American Neutrality, 1914-1917
Excellence describes this book. The manuscript demonstrates exceptional characteristics in three major ways: the research demonstrates superior historical skills, including an acceptance of the sources that exist rather than attempt to determine what sources will work in one methodology or another; a fresh interpretation of the significance of the Bureau of Investigation in the years when the US remained officially neutral in World War I, ignoring previous conclusions, reached as the authors show through political motives, and careful discussion of programs imagined, dismissed or ignored in previous monographs.
The authors used sources ignored or only sampled by other authors, even official FBI ones. Here the authors have reviewed the official Bureau of Investigation’s files on the Mexican Revolution that include more than 70,000 pages of reports, correspondence, and files for the Neutrality Period and World War I, 1914 to 1918, an additional 450,000 pages of case files known as the “Old German Files,” all declassified in 1977. This investigation alone makes the book stand out.
Reviewing the massive archive of documents, the authors decided to organize the manuscript topically so that readers do not become confused with overlapping cases and events. The topics divided into fifteen chapters that focus on such themes as attacks on Canada (1914 to 1916), conspiracies involving the Hindu-German and Irish groups (1915-1918), the campaign of firebombing and sabotage (1915-1917), Pancho Villa and his attacks on US interests (1915-1916), and the Carranza and Wilson administrations’ conflicts (1915-1917). This topical organization gives the text a clarity of narrative.
It is this narrative that moves the book beyond the simple explication of international politics or government administrative policies to a sophisticated analysis of the development taken for granted by other authors. For example, the Bureau built and successfully prosecuted many legal cases against German plotters. Still the bureau missed some major actions such as the unprecedented attack on the United States in July 1916, when the German sabotage cell of Paul Hilken and Friedrich Hinsch caused the explosion at Black Tom Island in the New York Harbor. It was only resolved after World War II.
Moreover the case of the Albert portfolio provides the most striking theme in the book. President Wilson permitted the British to campaign for US entry into the war on the side of the Allies. The publication of the contents of Heinrich Albert’s briefcase is linked to the president in support of British propaganda efforts. The authors show clearly the Albert affair, despite accounts by a dozen or so historians, did not happen as told.
The conclusion is clear: read this book for a clear explanation of what took place during the period when the US remained out of World War I! It is excellent!”
“You won’t find a better history of how the FBI developed during the First World War and the influence the intelligence war in the US exerted on its creation. The authors tap into neglected archival collections to bring to life the battle on American soil between an Imperial Germany desperate to keep the US from joining the Allies and a new and untried group of federal agents. This work clears up long-standing misinterpretations and restores long-missing parts of the historical record. It is essential reading for anyone interested in the history of espionage and for those who want a fuller understanding of the United States’ role in The Great War.”
“The fBI and American Neutrality, 1914-1917
This superbly researched history is all the more fascinating in the parallels it illuminates to our present situation and challenges. When considered together with the authors’ earlier works on the periods just before and during WWI, the result is an amazing sequence of subversion, espionage, struggle and reaction. For readers such as myself who are much more familiar with WWII or Cold War history, this book and its companions provide vital history and essential context to what began and followed in intelligence and counterintelligence.”