The papers consist of case files, related documents, internal CID administration and operational papers, and application of CID resources. The Administrative Files consist of background and history of the USACID, as well as biographical information on Tufts, including a transcript of an interview, and some brief biographical sketches on other military personnel. Correspondence contains letters and memoranda between Tufts and other military personnel. The largest series, Case Files, concerns criminal investigations which Colonel Tufts directed, including the My Lai case as well as the Son My case. Additional cases involve other war crimes, murder, drug trafficking, drug use, bribery, rape, corruption, racketeering, illegal use of government property, etc.
Included in Box 2 is the index card filing system of Col. Tufts. This filing system is the key to all of the major case files. The number and letter designations in the upper right hand corner of the case files were copied from the original folders and correspond to the index cards. For example, the contents of case file "1A" (file A of case 1) can be found by locating card A in tab 1 of the index card filing system. (The tab numbers correspond to case file numbers and the letters refer to Reports of Investigation (ROIs). There is also a section divided alphabetically by last name of an individual or name of a firm. The number and letter code found on these cards corresponds to the numbered tabs in the front of the index. These "name" cards can be used as cross reference for locating the cases in which these subjects were involved. This system has been preserved for reference purposes and has been kept in the exact order in which it was received. We have made every effort to maintain the original case file designations and have also retained some of the original case file labels.
Only Social Security numbers were redacted from case files. The identities of individuals are not concealed. The photocopies are of the best quality, and any difficulty in reading them is due to the poor quality of the original, which in many cases was also a photocopy.
One box of materials containing personnel records has been closed and is not available for research.
The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (USACIDC) was organized as a major command of the Army to provide investigative services to all levels of the Army. USACIDC concerns itself with every level of the Army throughout the world in which criminal activity can or has occurred. Unrestricted, CID (Criminal Investigation Division) searches out the full facts of a situation, organizes the facts into a logical summary of investigative data, and presents this data to the responsible command or a United States attorney as appropriate. The responsible command or the U.S. attorney then determines what action will be taken. Ultimately, the commander of USACIDC answers only to the Chief of Staff of the Army and the Secretary of the Army. CID has the authority to investigate felony crime affecting the Army anytime, anyplace in the world.
Colonel Henry H. Tufts was born in Salem, MA in 1917, and graduated with a law degree from Suffolk University in Boston in 1942. He enlisted in the Army in 1942 and during World War II served in the European Theater of Operations. In 1947 Tufts joined the Military Police Corps and was promoted to Colonel in 1966, serving at the U.S. Army Military Police School as Director of Instruction, Assistant Commandant, and then Commandant. In November 1968 Tufts was assigned as Chief of the Planning Group for the centralization of CID activities in the Army. The following August he became the first commanding officer of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Agency, and in 1971 he was designated Commanding Officer of the new U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command, a worldwide command with headquarters in Washington, DC.
Tufts was a veteran military police office who had served as provost marshal of the Pacific command. While heading the CID he directed the organization of special task forces to examine the deaths of more than 300 unarmed civilians at the Vietnamese village of My Lai in 1969 and allegations of criminal activity in non-commissioned officer mess systems in Vietnam, Europe, and elsewhere. Tufts retired in 1975 and served for 13 years as marketing director for the National Automobile Dealers Association Retirement Trust. He died in 2002.
