CIC Helps Establish South Korean CI Organizations (JUL 1948)

Photo By Lori Stewart | The 971st CIC Detachment was co-located with the G-2 Section, XXIV Corps headquarters, in the Bando Hotel in Seoul.  

UNITED STATES

07.14.2023

Story by Lori Stewart 

U.S. Army Intelligence Center of Excellence

by Lori S. Stewart, USAICoE Command Historian


JULY 1948
In late July 1948, the 971st Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) Detachment assisted the new South Korean government in standing up two counterintelligence (CI) organizations, one military and one civilian. Modeled on the American CIC organization, they would assume all CI functions in the country by the end of the year. Only one would survive the ensuing months.

At the end of World War II, the United States and Soviet Union (USSR) supported efforts to liberate Korea from the Japanese imperial rule imposed in 1910. The USSR moved into the region north of the 38th parallel, while the U.S. XXIV Corps established an occupation government south of that line. Although the intention was for the two regions to unite under a single government, within three years, the temporary boundary had become permanent. As North Korea came under communist control, the U.S. Army Military Government helped establish democracy in South Korea.

On 20 July 1948, Syngman Rhee was elected the first president for the independent Republic of Korea. The occupation period came to an end, and the U.S. Army prepared to return home. The 971st CIC Detachment, which had been established in April 1946 and operated out of the G-2 Section, XXIV Corps [see "This Week in MI History" #151 9 September 1945], was scheduled to depart in December. The new president, however, was aware of significant communist espionage and subversion activities within the Korean constabulary, on military posts, and throughout the countryside. Although distrustful of the American Military Government, Rhee met with Col. Thomas Watlington, the XXIV Corps G-2, and Lt. Col. H.E. Erickson, the American advisor to the Korean National Police, and requested the 971st assistance in establishing a Korean CI organization modeled on the CIC. Rhee wanted the Korean agency to be all civilian.

The 971st commander, Lt. Col. Joseph Huckins, appointed Maj. Theodore J. Roberts and Capt. Richard A. Fox for the onerous task of procuring, organizing, and training the personnel to man the new Korean Research Bureau (KRB) by the end of September. Most of the first sixty recruits were either members of the National Police or Korean employees of the 971st. Using interpreters and personnel from various government positions, Roberts and Fox began their training within days of the presidential election. Six weeks later, another class of 240 recruits began the course, graduating in early October. The course covered the full gamut of CI activities: safeguarding information, report writing, security surveys, interrogations, counterespionage, surveillance, arrests and searches, undercover investigations, background investigations, informants, riot control, police laboratory methods, document examination, observation and description, and preservation of evidence.

Upon graduation, the new agents were assigned to the 971st headquarters and its thirteen district offices to gain on-the-job training before assuming their duties. Colonel Huckins urged the American CIC agents to cooperate fully with the new Korean agents: “Their mission requires knowledge and understanding and their success depends in large measure upon your guidance during the embryonic stages.”

Unfortunately, the National Assembly refused to sanction the KRB as an official government agency for fears it would be used primarily to investigate President Rhee’s political rivals. Thus, Colonel Watlington had the CIC help organize a Special Investigations Section in the Korean constabulary. This military organization was comprised of selected Korean Army and Navy officers and cadets. After completing a month-long course, they were expected to establish CIC-like detachments in their own units.

As 1948 drew to a close, the CIC turned its responsibilities and files over to the KRB. Most of the 971st agents departed Korea on 31 December, leaving behind the two fledgling organizations. By the time the last American troops left in June 1949, the KRB had dissolved, and the Special Investigations Sections (combined into a single Special Investigations Service) was handling all CI activities in the new republic.

• Date Taken: 07.14.2023
• Date Posted: 07.14.2023 19:16
• Story ID: 449275
• Location: US