The Society for Military History

Kent State University

Dr. Brian Masaru Hayashi

American Revolution and Early Republic
Shays’s Rebellion
Espionage and Intelligence Gathering

Knowing Your Enemies: Ralph Van Deman and the Origins of American Military Intelligence, 1882-1941

Matt Vajda is a PhD Candidate at Kent State University in Ohio. He is a student of early American war and society with specific emphasis on the American Revolution and Early Republic. While he has primarily studied Shays’s Rebellion (1786-1787), the state militia’s loyalties, and the government response to the uprising, his dissertation focuses on Ralph Van Deman’s efforts with creating a formal network of counterintelligence within the Military Intelligence Division and his influences, including John Jay during the American Revolution. Matt is an adjunct instructor in history at Notre Dame College in their Department of Public Service and Security Studies. Although a New Yorker by birth, he has spent much of his life in Massachusetts and is an avid Red Sox and New England Patriots fan. He is also a metalhead and concert-goer and hopes to write an article or book on heavy metal music and American history.