Negative Intelligence: The Army and the American Left, 1917-1941 by Roy Talbert, Jr. During World War I, in the period of the Red Scare, and throughout the Great Depression, the army's domestic spy agency mounted an extensive surveillance campaign focused on civilians and groups deemed subversive. This book traces the fascinating and astonishing story of military espionage on the home front. Created by Major General Ralph H. Van Deman in 1917, the Negative Branch of Military Intelligence, or MI, spied on American reformers in a program of civilian surveillance that surpassed even that of the Department of Justice's Bureau of Investigation.