Editing Office of Strategic Services

{{Short description|1940s United States intelligence agency}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2018}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2024}}
{{Infobox government agency
| agency_name     = Office of Strategic Services
| nativename      = 
| nativename_a    = 
| nativename_r    = 
| logo            = Office of Strategic Services Insignia.svg
| logo_width      = 150px
| logo_caption    = OSS insignia<ref name="Emerson">{{cite book|last=Emerson|first=William K.|title=Encyclopedia of United States Army Insignia and Uniforms|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=trbBXKeHO3sC&q=OSS+insignia&pg=PA412|year=1996|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=9780806126227|chapter=51}}</ref>
| seal            = 
| seal_width      = 
| seal_caption    = 
| formed          = June 13, 1942
| preceding1      = [[Office of the Coordinator of Information|Coordinator of Information]]
| preceding2      = 
| dissolved       = September 20, 1945
| superseding1    = [[Central Intelligence Agency]]
| superseding2    = [[Bureau of Intelligence and Research|Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research]]
| superseding3    = [[Central Intelligence Group]]
| superseding4    = [[Strategic Services Unit]]
| jurisdiction    = 
| headquarters    = 
| employees       = 13,000 estimated<ref>Dawidoff, p. 240</ref>
| budget          = 
| minister1_name  = 
| minister1_pfo   = 
| minister2_name  = 
| minister2_pfo   = 
| chief1_name     = [[Major General (United States)|MG]] [[William Joseph Donovan]]
| chief1_position = Coordinator of Information
| chief2_name     = [[Brigadier General (United States)|BG]] [[John Magruder (Brigadier General)|John Magruder]]
| chief2_position = Director for Intelligence
| chief3_name     = [[Millard Preston Goodfellow]]
| chief3_position = SA/Goodfellow
| chief4_name     = [[David K.E. Bruce]]
| chief4_position = SA/Bruce
| chief5_name     = [[Garland H. Williams]]
| chief5_position = Director of Training
| chief6_name     = [[Robert E. Sherwood]]
| chief6_position = Voice of America
| parent_agency   = 
| child1_agency   = 
| child2_agency   = 
| website         = 
| footnotes       = 
}}
{{Listen
| image       = [[File:Crystal Project video camera.png|50px]]
| help        = no
| filename    = OSS Overview.ogv
| title       = Overview: Office of Strategic Services
| description = [[CIA]] film describing OSS recruitment, training, and missions during [[WWII]]
}}

The '''Office of Strategic Services''' ('''OSS''') was the first [[intelligence agency]] of the [[United States]], formed during [[World War II]]. The OSS was formed as an agency of the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]] (JCS)<ref>{{cite web|last=Clancey|first=Patrick|title=Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Organization and Functions|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USG/JCS/OSS/OSS-Functions/index.html|publisher=HyperWar|access-date=Nov 10, 2016}}</ref> to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the [[United States Armed Forces]]. Other OSS functions included the use of propaganda, [[subversion]], and post-war planning.

The OSS was dissolved a month after the end of the war. Intelligence tasks were shortly later resumed and carried over by its successors, the [[Strategic Services Unit]] (SSU), the [[United States Department of State|Department of State]]'s [[Bureau of Intelligence and Research]] (INR), and the [[Central Intelligence Group]] (CIG), the intermediary precursor to the independent [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA).

On December 14, 2016, the organization was collectively honored with a [[Congressional Gold Medal]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.congress.gov/114/plaws/publ269/PLAW-114publ269.pdf|title=US Public Law 114–269 (2016)|access-date=February 21, 2018}}</ref>

== Origin ==
{{Main article|Office of the Coordinator of Information}}
Before the OSS, the various departments of the executive branch, including the [[United States Department of State|State]], [[United States Department of the Treasury|Treasury]], [[United States Department of the Navy|Navy]], and [[United States Department of War|War]] Departments, conducted American intelligence activities on an ''ad hoc'' basis, with no overall direction, coordination, or control. The [[United States Army|US Army]] and [[United States Navy|US Navy]] had separate code-breaking departments: [[Signal Intelligence Service]] and [[OP-20-G]]. (A previous code-breaking operation of the State Department, the [[Black Chamber|MI-8]], run by [[Herbert Yardley]], had been shut down in 1929 by Secretary of State [[Henry Stimson]], deeming it an inappropriate function for the diplomatic arm, because "gentlemen don't read each other's mail."<ref>Stimson, Henry L. ''On Active Service in Peace and War'' (1948). ''per'' ''Bartlett's Familiar Quotations'', 16th ed.</ref>) The [[FBI]] was responsible for domestic security and anti-espionage operations.

President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] was concerned about American intelligence deficiencies. On the suggestion of [[William Stephenson]], the senior British intelligence officer in the western hemisphere, Roosevelt requested that [[William J. Donovan]] draft a plan for an intelligence service based on the British [[Secret Intelligence Service]] (MI6) and [[Special Operations Executive]] (SOE). Donovan envisioned a single agency responsible for foreign intelligence and special operations involving [[commandos]], [[disinformation]], [[Partisan (military)|partisan]] and [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla]] activities.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Spector |first1=Ronald H. |title=In the ruins of empire : the Japanese surrender and the battle for postwar Asia |date=2007 |publisher=Random House |location=New York |isbn=9780375509155 |edition=1st |page=8}}</ref> Donovan worked closely with Australian-born British intelligence officer [[Dick Ellis|Charles Howard 'Dick' Ellis]], who has been credited with writing the blueprint.

Said Ellis:

<blockquote>I was soon requested to draft a blueprint for an American intelligence agency, the equivalent of BSC [British Security Co-ordination] and based on these British wartime improvisations... detailed tables of organisation were disclosed to Washington... among these were the organisational tables that led to the birth of General William Donovan's OSS.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fink |first1=Jesse |title=The Eagle in the Mirror |date=2023 |publisher=Black & White Publishing |location=Edinburgh |isbn=9781785305108 |pages=96}}</ref></blockquote>

After submitting his (and Ellis's) work, "Memorandum of Establishment of Service of Strategic Information", Donovan was appointed "Coordinator of Information" on July 11, 1941, heading the new organization known as the [[Office of the Coordinator of Information]] (COI).

[[File:William Joseph (Wild Bill) Donovan, Head of the OSS.jpg|thumb|left|William J. Donovan]]

Ellis, described as Donovan's "right-hand man", "effectively ran the organization".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fink |first1=Jesse |title=The Eagle in the Mirror |date=2023 |publisher=Black & White Publishing |location=Edinburgh |isbn=9781785305108 |pages=95}}</ref>

Writes Fink:

<blockquote>Ellis was sent from New York by [[William Stephenson]] "to Washington to open a sub-station to facilitate daily liaison with Donovan, who reciprocated by sending [future Director of Central Intelligence, DCI] [[Allen Dulles|Allen Welsh Dulles]] to liaise with BSC in the Rockefeller Center". According to Thomas F. Troy, paraphrasing Stephenson, Ellis 'was the tradecraft expert, the organization man, the one who furnished Bill Donovan with charts and memoranda on running an intelligence organization".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fink |first1=Jesse |title=The Eagle in the Mirror |date=2023 |publisher=Black & White Publishing |location=Edinburgh |isbn=9781785305108 |pages=95–96}}</ref></blockquote>

Donovan had responsibilities but no actual powers and the existing US agencies were skeptical if not hostile to the British. Until some months after Pearl Harbor, the bulk of OSS intelligence came from the UK. [[British Security Co-ordination]] (BSC), under the direction of Ellis, trained the first OSS agents in Canada, until training stations were set up in the US with guidance from BSC instructors, who also provided information on how the SOE was arranged and managed. The British immediately made available their [[Aspidistra (transmitter)|short-wave broadcasting capabilities]] to Europe, Africa, and the Far East and provided equipment for agents until American production was established.<ref>''The Secret History of British Intelligence in the Americas, 1940-1945'', p27-28</ref>

[[File:Dick Ellis.jpg|thumb|Dick Ellis]]

Writes Fink:

<blockquote>[[William J. Casey|William Casey]], who headed up OSS's Europe-based human-intelligence operations, the Secret Intelligence Branch, and went on to become director of the CIA, wrote in his autobiography, ''The Secret War Against Hitler'', that Ellis was not only writing blueprints but involved in on-the-ground, logistical programs: "Dick Ellis, [an] experienced British pro, helped establish training centres, mostly around Washington." United States Assistant Secretary of State [[Adolf A. Berle|Adolf Berle]] commented: "The really active head of the intelligence section in [William] Donovan's [OSS] group is [Ellis] ... in other words, [Stephenson's] assistant in the British intelligence [sic] is running Donovan's intelligence service."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fink |first1=Jesse |title=The Eagle in the Mirror |date=2023 |publisher=Black & White Publishing |location=Edinburgh |isbn=9781785305108 |pages=97}}</ref></blockquote>

The Office of Strategic Services was established by a Presidential military order issued by President Roosevelt on June 13, 1942, to collect and analyze strategic information required by the [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]] and to conduct special operations not assigned to other agencies. During the war, the OSS supplied policymakers with facts and estimates, but the OSS never had jurisdiction over all foreign intelligence activities. The [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] was left responsible for intelligence work in Latin America, and the Army and Navy continued to develop and rely on their own sources of intelligence.

Donald Downes, who was developing counterintelligence capabilities in Washington, explained the situation in his memoir:

<blockquote>Edgar Hoover was out for Donovan's scalp and any type of co-operation was pretty well one-sided. Not only OSS, but the British Secret Intelligence, many of whose investigations were bound to lead to America, were constantly being hounded by the FBI... A friend of ours in the Department of Justice had warned us that Edgar Hoover believed we were 'penetrating' embassies and that he was annoyed.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Downes|first1=Donald|title=The Scarlet Thread: Adventures in Wartime Espionage|date= 1953|publisher=Wildside Press|page=94}}</ref></blockquote>

== Activities ==
[[File:Donovan reviews OGs.jpg|thumb|left|General [[William J. Donovan]] reviews Operational Group members in [[Bethesda, Maryland]], prior to their departure for China in 1945.]]
[[File:Office of Strategic Services (OSS), Missions and Bases in East Asia during WWII.jpg|thumb|OSS missions and bases in [[East Asia]]]]

OSS proved especially useful in providing a worldwide overview of the German war effort, its strengths and weaknesses. In direct operations it was successful in supporting [[Operation Torch]] in French North Africa in 1942, where it identified pro-Allied potential supporters and located landing sites. OSS operations in neutral countries, especially [[Stockholm]], [[Sweden]], provided in-depth information on German advanced technology. The [[Madrid]] station set up agent networks in France that supported the Allied invasion of [[southern France]] in 1944. Most famous were the operations in [[Switzerland]] run by [[Allen Dulles]] that provided extensive information on German strength, [[Anti-aircraft warfare|air defenses]], [[submarine]] production, and the [[V-1 flying bomb|V-1]] and [[V-2 rocket|V-2]] weapons. It revealed some of the secret German efforts in [[chemical warfare|chemical]] and [[biological warfare]]. Switzerland's station also supported [[Resistance during World War II|resistance fighters]] in [[France]], [[Austria]] and [[Italy]], and helped with the [[German instrument of surrender|surrender of German forces]] in Italy in 1945.<ref>G.J.A. O'Toole, '' Honorable Treachery: A History of U. S. Intelligence, Espionage, and Covert Action from the American Revolution to the CIA'' pp 418-19.</ref>

For the duration of [[World War II]], the Office of Strategic Services was conducting multiple activities and missions, including collecting [[Espionage|intelligence]] by spying, performing acts of [[sabotage]], waging [[propaganda]] war, organizing and coordinating anti-Nazi resistance groups in Europe, and providing military training for anti-Japanese guerrilla movements in Asia, among other things.<ref name="Smith, R. Harris 1972">Smith, R. Harris. ''OSS: The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency''. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.</ref> At the height of its influence during World War II, the OSS employed almost 24,000 people.<ref name=cnn>[http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/14/spies.revealed.ap/index.html "Chef Julia Child, others part of WWII spy network"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080821152008/http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/14/spies.revealed.ap/index.html |date=August 21, 2008 }}, [[CNN]], 2008-08-14</ref>

From 1943 to 1945, the OSS played a major role in training [[Kuomintang]] troops in China and [[Burma]], and recruited [[Jingpo people|Kachin]] and other indigenous irregular forces for sabotage as well as guides for Allied forces in [[China Burma India Theater of World War II|Burma]] fighting the Japanese Army.  Among other activities, the OSS helped arm, train, and supply [[resistance movement]]s in areas [[military occupation|occupied]] by the [[Axis powers]] during [[World War II]], including [[Mao Zedong]]'s [[People's Liberation Army|Red Army]] in China (known as the [[Dixie Mission]]) and the [[Viet Minh]] in [[French Indochina]]. OSS officer [[Archimedes Patti]] played a central role in OSS operations in [[French Indochina]] and met frequently with [[Ho Chi Minh]] in 1945.<ref>{{cite web |title=Interview with Archimedes L. A. Patti |year=1981 |url=http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/vietnam-bf3262-interview-with-archimedes-l-a-patti-1981}}</ref>

One of the greatest accomplishments of the OSS during World War II was its penetration of [[Nazi Germany]] by OSS operatives. The OSS was responsible for training German and Austrian individuals for missions inside Germany. Some of these agents included exiled communists and Socialist party members, labor activists, anti-Nazi prisoners-of-war, and German and Jewish refugees. The OSS also recruited and ran one of the war's most important spies, the German diplomat [[Fritz Kolbe]].

From 1943 the OSS was in contact with the Austrian resistance group around Kaplan [[Heinrich Maier]]. As a result, plans and production facilities for [[V-2 rocket]]s, [[Tiger tank]]s and aircraft ([[Messerschmitt Bf 109]], [[Messerschmitt Me 163 Komet]], etc.) were passed on to Allied general staffs in order to enable Allied bombers to get accurate air strikes. The Maier group informed very early about the mass murder of Jews through its contacts with the Semperit factory near Auschwitz. The group was gradually dismantled by the German authorities because of a double agent who worked for both the OSS and the Gestapo. This uncovered a transfer of money from the Americans to Vienna via Istanbul and Budapest, and most of the members were executed after a People's Court hearing.<ref>Peter Broucek "Die österreichische Identität im Widerstand 1938–1945" (2008), p 163.</ref><ref>Hansjakob Stehle "Die Spione aus dem Pfarrhaus (German: The spy from the rectory)" In: Die Zeit, 5 January 1996.</ref>

[[File:George Musulin.jpg|thumb|OSS 1st Lieutenant [[George Musulin]] behind enemy lines in German-occupied Serbia, as a [[Chetniks|Chetnik]], during his first mission in November 1943. His second mission was [[Operation Halyard]].]]

In 1943, the Office of Strategic Services set up operations in Istanbul.<ref name="Hassell, A page 158">Hassell and McCrae, p.158</ref> Turkey, as a neutral country during the Second World War, was a place where both the Axis and Allied powers had spy networks. The railroads connecting central Asia with Europe, as well as Turkey's close proximity to the Balkan states, placed it at a crossroads of intelligence gathering. The goal of the OSS Istanbul operation called Project Net-1 was to infiltrate and extenuate subversive action in the old Ottoman and [[Austro-Hungarian Empire]]s.<ref name="Hassell, A page 158"/>

The head of operations at OSS Istanbul was a banker from Chicago named Lanning "Packy" Macfarland, who maintained a cover story as a banker for the American [[lend-lease program]].<ref>Hassell and MacRae, p.159</ref> Macfarland hired Alfred Schwarz,<ref>Erich Cibulka: Deckname Dogwood. Erinnerungen an Alfred Schwarz (2022)</ref> an Austrian businessman (* 25. April 1904 in [[Prostějov]], [[Austria-Hungary]]; † 13. August 1988 in [[Lucerne]], [[Switzerland]]) who came to be known as "Dogwood" and ended up establishing the Dogwood information chain.<ref name="Hassell, A page 166">Hassell and MacRae, p.166</ref> Dogwood in turn hired a personal assistant named Walter Arndt and established himself as an employee of the Istanbul Western Electrik Kompani.<ref name="Hassell, A page 166"/> Through Schwarz and Arndt the OSS was able to infiltrate [[anti-fascist]] groups in Austria, Hungary, and Germany. Schwarz was able to convince Romanian, Bulgarian, Hungarian, and Swiss diplomatic couriers to smuggle American intelligence information into these territories and establish contact with elements antagonistic to the Nazis and their collaborators.<ref>Hassell and MacRae, p.167</ref> Couriers and agents memorized information and produced analytical reports; when they were not able to memorize effectively they recorded information on [[microfilm]] and hid it in their shoes or hollowed pencils.<ref name=rubin>Rubin, B: ''Istanbul Intrigues'', page 168. Pharos Books, 1992.</ref> Through this process information about the Nazi regime made its way to Macfarland and the OSS in Istanbul and eventually to Washington.

While the OSS "Dogwood-chain" produced a lot of information, its reliability was increasingly questioned by British intelligence. By May 1944, through collaboration between the OSS, British intelligence, Cairo, and Washington, the entire Dogwood-chain was found to be unreliable and dangerous.<ref name=rubin /> Planting phony information into the OSS was intended to misdirect the resources of the Allies. Schwarz's Dogwood-chain, which was the largest American intelligence gathering tool in occupied territory, was shortly thereafter shut down.<ref>Hassell and MacRae, p.184</ref>

The OSS purchased Soviet code and cipher material (or Finnish information on them) from émigré [[Finnish army]] officers in late 1944. Secretary of State [[Edward Stettinius, Jr.]], protested that this violated an agreement President Roosevelt made with the Soviet Union not to interfere with Soviet cipher traffic from the United States. General Donovan might have copied the papers before returning them the following January, but there is no record of [[Arlington Hall]] receiving them, and CIA and NSA archives have no surviving copies. This codebook was in fact used as part of the [[Venona]] [[decryption]] effort, which helped uncover large-scale Soviet espionage in North America.<ref>[[Christopher Andrew (historian)|Andrew, Christopher]] and [[Vasili Mitrokhin|Mitrokhin, Vasili]], ''The Mitrokhin Archive, Volume 1: The KGB in Europe and the West'', 1999.</ref>

RYPE was the codename of the airborne unit who was dropped in the Norwegian mountains of Snåsa on March 24, 1945 to carry out sabotage actions behind enemy lines. From the base at the Gjefsjøen mountain farm, the group conducted successful railroad sabotages, with the intention of preventing the withdrawal of German forces from northern Norway. [[Operasjon Rype]] was the only U.S. operation on German-occupied Norwegian soil during WW2. The group consisted mainly of Norwegian Americans recruited from the [[99th Infantry Battalion (United States)|99th Infantry Battalion]]. Operasjon Rype was led by [[William Colby]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=First Run Features: THE MAN NOBODY KNEW: William Colby|url=http://firstrunfeatures.com/themannobodyknew/|access-date=2020-07-28|website=firstrunfeatures.com}}</ref>

The OSS sent four teams of two under Captain Stephen Vinciguerra (codename ''Algonquin'', teams Alsace, Poissy, S&S and Student), with [[Operation Varsity]] in March 1945 to infiltrate and report from behind enemy lines, but none succeeded. Team S&S had two agents in Wehrmacht uniforms and a captured [[Kϋbelwagen]]; to report by radio. But the Kϋbelwagen was put out of action while in the glider; three tires and the long-range radio were shot up (German gunners were told to attack the gliders not the tow planes).<ref>*{{cite book |last= Fenelon  |first= James M. |title= Four Hours of Fury  |accessdate=  |edition=  |origyear=  |year= 2019 |publisher= Scribner/Simon & Schuster |location= New York |isbn= 978-1-5011-7937-2 |oclc= |pages= 126, 246 }}</ref>

== Weapons and gadgets ==
[[File:Beano grenade.jpg|thumb|left|OSS [[T13 Beano Grenade]] and compass hidden in a button, [[CIA Museum]]]]

The OSS espionage and sabotage operations produced a steady demand for highly specialized equipment.<ref name="Smith, R. Harris 1972"/> General Donovan invited experts, organized workshops, and funded labs that later formed the core of the Research & Development Branch.<ref>OSS SPECIAL WEAPONS & EQUIPMENT by H. Keith Melton (Author) 1 April 1991, ISBN 0806982381</ref> Boston chemist Stanley P. Lovell became its first head, and Donovan humorously called him his "[[Professor Moriarty]]".<ref name="Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS">Waller, Douglas C. ''Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage''. New York: Free Press, 2011.</ref>{{rp|101}} Throughout the war years, the OSS Research & Development successfully adapted Allied weapons and espionage equipment, and produced its own line of novel spy tools and gadgets, including silenced pistols, lightweight sub-machine guns, "[[BEANO T-13 grenade|Beano]]" grenades that exploded upon impact, [[Coal torpedo|explosives disguised as lumps of coal]] ("Black Joe") or bags of Chinese flour ("Aunt Jemima"), acetone time delay fuses for [[limpet mine]]s, compasses hidden in uniform buttons, playing cards that concealed maps, a 16mm Kodak camera in the shape of a matchbox, tasteless poison tablets ("K" and "L" pills), and cigarettes laced with [[THC-O-acetate|tetrahydrocannabinol acetate]] (an extract of Indian hemp) to induce uncontrollable chattiness.<ref name="Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS" /><ref>[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/oss/art08.htm CIA Library: Weapons & Spy Gear] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140221171005/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/oss/art08.htm |date=February 21, 2014 }}, ''Historical Document'', March 15, 2007.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=OSS Weapons|last=Brunner|first=John|publisher=Phillips Publications|year=1994|isbn=0-932572-21-9}}</ref>

The OSS also developed innovative communication equipment such as wiretap gadgets, electronic beacons for locating agents, and the [[Joan-Eleanor system|"Joan-Eleanor" portable radio system]] that made it possible for operatives on the ground to establish secure contact with a plane that was preparing to land or drop cargo. The OSS Research & Development also printed fake German and Japanese-issued identification cards, and various passes, ration cards, and counterfeit money.<ref>''The Office of Strategic Services America's First Intelligence Agency''. Washington, D.C.: Public Affairs, Central Intelligence Agency, 2000, p. 33.</ref>

On August 28, 1943, Stanley Lovell was asked to make a presentation in front of a hostile [[Joint Chiefs of Staff]], who were skeptical of OSS plans beyond collecting military intelligence and were ready to split the OSS between the Army and the Navy.<ref>Hogan, David W. ''U.S. Army Special Operations in World War II''. Washington, D.C.: Center of Military History, Dept. of the Army, 1992.</ref>{{rp|5–7}} While explaining the purpose and mission of his department and introducing various gadgets and tools, he reportedly casually dropped into a waste basket a Hedy, a panic-inducing explosive device in the shape of a firecracker, which shortly produced a loud shrieking sound followed by a deafening boom. The presentation was interrupted and did not resume since everyone in the room fled. In reality, the Hedy, jokingly named after Hollywood movie star [[Hedy Lamarr]] for her ability to distract men, later saved the lives of some trapped OSS operatives.<ref>Breuer, William B. ''Deceptions of World War II''. New York: Wiley, 2002.</ref>{{rp|184–185}}

Not all projects worked. Some ideas were odd, such as a failed attempt to use insects to spread anthrax in Spain.<ref name="Six-Legged Soldiers">Lockwood, Jeffrey Alan. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=pMctyFo34E8C&q=Stanley+P.+Lovell&pg=PA149 Six-Legged Soldiers: Using Insects As Weapons of War]''. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.</ref>{{rp|150–151}}  Stanley Lovell was later quoted saying, "It was my policy to consider any method whatever that might aid the war, however unorthodox or untried".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Lovell|first=Stanley P.|year=1963|title=Of Spies and Stratagems|publisher=[[Prentice Hall]]|location=[[Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey|Englewood Cliffs]], [[New Jersey]]|asin=B000LBAQYS|page=79}}</ref>

In 1939, a young physician named [[Christian J. Lambertsen]] developed an oxygen [[Diving rebreather|rebreather]] set (the [[Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit]]) and demonstrated it to the OSS—after already being rejected by the U.S. Navy—in a pool at the [[Shoreham Hotel]] in Washington D.C., in 1942.<ref name=vann2004>{{cite journal |author=Vann RD |title=Lambertsen and O2: beginnings of operational physiology |journal=Undersea Hyperb Med |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=21–31 |year=2004 |pmid=15233157 |url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/3987 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080613163446/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/3987 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=June 13, 2008 |access-date=2013-04-20}}</ref><ref name=cjl>Shapiro, T. Rees. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/18/AR2011021802873.html "Christian J. Lambertsen, OSS officer who created early scuba device, dies at 93"]. ''[[Washington Post]]'' (February 18, 2011)</ref> The OSS not only bought into the concept, they hired Lambertsen to lead the program and build up the dive element for the organization.<ref name=cjl /> His responsibilities included training and developing methods of combining self-contained diving and swimmer delivery including the Lambertsen Amphibious Respiratory Unit for the OSS "Operational Swimmer Group".<ref name=vann2004/><ref name=butler2004>{{cite journal |author=Butler FK |title=Closed-circuit oxygen diving in the U.S. Navy |journal=Undersea Hyperb Med |volume=31 |issue=1 |pages=3–20 |year=2004 |pmid=15233156 |url=http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/3986 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080613163441/http://archive.rubicon-foundation.org/3986 |url-status=usurped |archive-date=June 13, 2008 |access-date=2013-04-20 }}</ref> Growing involvement of the OSS with coastal infiltration and water-based sabotage eventually led to creation of the [[OSS Maritime Unit]].

== Headquarters and field offices ==
{{Main article|E Street Complex}}
The bulk of the OSS, after the expansion out of and away from COI, eventually found itself headquartered at a complex near 23rd Street and E Street in Washington, D.C.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hendrix |first=Steve |date=2023-04-15 |title=Former OSS spies on a mission to save old headquarters |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/former-oss-spies-on-a-mission-to-save-old-headquarters/2014/06/28/69379d16-fd7d-11e3-932c-0a55b81f48ce_story.html |access-date=2024-06-25 |newspaper=Washington Post |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286}}</ref> This complex was unassuming, appearing to be a mix of normal government offices and apartment buildings to nearby residents and office workers.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Katz |first=Barry M. |title=Foreign Intelligence · Research and Analysis in the Office of Strategic Services 1942-1945 |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1989 |location=Cambridge, Mass., London}}</ref> It is known as the "Navy Hill Complex," "Potomac Hill Complex," and the "[[E Street Complex]]."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2014-07-03 |title=The Preservation of the Intelligence History of Navy Hill |url=https://ingloriousamateurs.com/blogs/cables/the-preservation-of-the-intelligence-history-of-navy-hill |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=Inglorious Amateurs |language=en}}</ref> The [[OSS Society]] and State Department have engaged in efforts with the National Park Service to add the Headquarters complex to the National Register of Historic Places.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Office of Strategic Services Society |url=https://www.osssociety.org/#:~:text=The%20OSS%20Congressional%20Gold%20Medal,National%20Register%20of%20Historic%20Places. |access-date=2024-06-25 |website=www.osssociety.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=National Park Service |title=National Register of Historic Places Registration Form |url=https://www.osssociety.org/pdfs/oss_nr_final_to_hpo.pdf}}</ref>

==Training facilities==
At [[Camp X]], near [[Whitby, Ontario]], an "assassination and elimination" training program was operated by the British [[Special Operations Executive]], assigning exceptional masters in the art of knife-wielding combat, such as [[William E. Fairbairn]] and [[Eric A. Sykes]], to instruct trainees.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Whiteclay |first=John Chambers II |title=Training for War and Espionage: Office of Strategic Services Training During World War II |publisher=Studies in Intelligence |year=2010 |edition=Vol. 54, No. 2 |department=Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, DC, 20505}}</ref> Many members of the Office of Strategic Services also were trained there. It was dubbed "the school of mayhem and murder" by [[George Hunter White]] who trained at the facility in the 1940's.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mcintosh |first=Alex |title=Camp X and the Birth of the CIA |publisher=[[BBC]] |year=2014 |location=United Kingdom}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=1970-01-01 |title=How Camp X Worked |url=https://science.howstuffworks.com/camp-x.htm |access-date=2024-06-26 |website=HowStuffWorks |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-05-04 |title=A Terrible Mistake: H.P. Albarelli's Investigation into CIA Scientist's Murder, at the Crossroads of Mind Control and Assassination |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/a-terrible-mistake-hp-alb_b_485774 |access-date=2024-06-26 |website=HuffPost |language=en}}</ref>

Beginning in January 1941, [[Millard Preston Goodfellow|Colonel Millard Preston Goodfellow]], creator and Director of the [[Special Operations Branch]] (at this time still known as SA/G within the COI), negotiated with the [[National Park Service]] to obtain three tracts of land to be dedicated as training camps for both SA/G and SA/B.<ref name=":52">{{Cite web |title=OSS: LTC Ellery Huntington's Staff |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/document/02730858 |access-date=2024-06-27 |website=www.cia.gov}}</ref> In March, he assigned [[Garland H. Williams]] to be the Training Director of these facilities.<ref name=":52" />

Commander N.G.A Woolley was loaned to COI by the British Navy and helped Donovan and Goodfellow to organize underwater training and craft landing.<ref name=":52" />

From these incipient beginnings, the Office of Strategic Services opened camps in the United States, and finally abroad. [[Prince William Forest Park]] (then known as Chopawamsic Recreational Demonstration Area) was the site of an OSS training camp that operated from 1942 to 1945. Area "C", consisting of approximately {{convert|6,000|acre|km2}}, was used extensively for communications training, whereas Area "A" was used for training some of the OGs (Operational Groups).<ref>{{cite book|last=Chambers II|first=John Whiteclay|title=OSS Training in the National Parks and Service Abroad in World War II|page=40|chapter=2|chapter-url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/oss/chap2.pdf|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|date=2008|location=Washington, DC|isbn=978-1511654760}}</ref> [[Catoctin Mountain Park]], now the location of [[Camp David]], was the site of OSS training Area "B" where the first Special Operations, or SO, were trained.<ref>{{cite book|last=Chambers II|first=John Whiteclay|title=OSS Training in the National Parks and Service Abroad in World War II|pages=195–199|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|year=2008|chapter =Chapter 6: Instructing for Dangerous Missions|chapter-url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/oss/chap6.pdf|url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/oss/}}</ref> [[Special Operations Branch|Special Operations]] was modeled after Great Britain's [[Special Operations Executive]], which included parachute, sabotage, self-defense, weapons, and leadership training to support guerrilla or partisan resistance.<ref>{{cite book|last=Chambers II|first =John Whiteclay|title=OSS Training in the National Parks and Service Abroad in World War II|page=40|chapter=2|chapter-url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/oss/chap2.pdf|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|date=2008|location=Washington, DC|isbn=978-1511654760}}</ref> Considered most mysterious of all was the "cloak and dagger" Secret Intelligence, or SI branch.<ref>{{cite book|last=Chambers II|first=John Whiteclay|title=OSS Training in the National Parks and Service Abroad in World War II|page=35|chapter=2|chapter-url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/oss/chap2.pdf|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|date=2008|location=Washington, DC|isbn=978-1511654760}}</ref> Secret Intelligence employed "country estates as schools for introducing recruits into the murky world of espionage. Thus, it established Training Areas E and RTU-11 ("the Farm") in spacious manor houses with surrounding horse farms."<ref>{{cite book|last=Chambers II|first=John Whiteclay|title=OSS Training in the National Parks and Service Abroad in World War II|page=558|chapter=11|chapter-url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/oss/chap11.pdf|publisher =U.S. National Park Service|date=2008|location=Washington, DC|isbn=978-1511654760}}</ref> [[Morale Operations Branch|Morale Operations]] training included psychological warfare and propaganda.<ref>{{cite book|last=Chambers II|first=John Whiteclay
|title=OSS Training in the National Parks and Service Abroad in World War II|page=43|chapter=2|chapter-url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/oss/chap2.pdf|publisher=U.S. National Park Service|date=2008|location=Washington, DC|isbn=978-1511654760}}</ref> The [[Congressional Country Club]] (Area F) in [[Bethesda, Maryland]], was the primary OSS training facility. The Facilities of the [[Catalina Island Marine Institute]] at [[Toyon Bay]] on [[Santa Catalina Island (California)|Santa Catalina Island]], [[California|Calif.]], are composed (in part) of a former OSS survival training camp. The National Park Service commissioned a study of OSS National Park training facilities by Professor John Chambers of Rutgers University.<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol.-54-no.-2/pdfs-vol.-54-no.-2/Chambers-OSS%20Training%20in%20WWII-with%20notes-web-19Jun.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707003431/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol.-54-no.-2/pdfs-vol.-54-no.-2/Chambers-OSS%20Training%20in%20WWII-with%20notes-web-19Jun.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 7, 2010 |title=(U) Chambers-OSS Training in WWII-with Notes.fm |access-date=2018-09-26}}</ref>

The main OSS training camps abroad were located initially in Great Britain, French Algeria, and Egypt; later as the Allies advanced, a school was established in southern Italy. In the Far East, OSS training facilities were established in India, Ceylon, and then China. The [[London]] branch of the OSS, its first overseas facility, was at 70 Grosvenor Street, W1. In addition to training local agents, the overseas OSS schools also provided advanced training and field exercises for graduates of the training camps in the United States and for Americans who enlisted in the OSS in the war zones. The most famous of the latter was [[Virginia Hall]] in France.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>

The OSS's Mediterranean training center in Cairo, Egypt, known to many as the ''Spy School'', was a lavish palace belonging to [[Farouk of Egypt|King Farouk's]] brother-in-law, called ''Ras el Kanayas''.<ref>{{Citation
 | last =Hueck Allen
 | first =Susan
 | title =Classical Spies: American Archaeologists with the OSS in World War II Greece
 | place =Ann Arbor, Michigan
 | publisher =The University of Michigan
 | year =2013
 | chapter =7 
 | chapter-url =https://books.google.com/books?id=jJZFDwAAQBAJ&q=ras+el+kanayas&pg=PT420
 | page =134
 | language =en
 | isbn =978-0472117697
}}</ref><ref>{{Citation
 | last1 =Doundoulakis
 | first1 =Helias
 | author-link =Helias Doundoulakis
 | last2 =Gafni
 | first2 =Gabriella
 | title =Trained to be an OSS Spy
 | place =Bloomington, IN
 | publisher =Xlibris
 | year =2014
 | chapter =11
 | chapter-url =https://books.google.com/books?id=vkGtBAAAQBAJ&q=spy+school&pg=PA136
 | page =99
 | language =en
 | isbn =978-1499059830
}}</ref>{{self-published inline|date=June 2020}} It was modeled after the SOE's training facility [[List of SOE establishments#Training schools|STS 102]] in Haifa, Palestine.<ref>{{Citation
 | last =Doundoulakis
 | first =Helias
 | author-link =Helias Doundoulakis
 | title =I was Trained to be a Spy-Book II
 | place =Bloomington, IN
 | publisher =Xlibris
 | year =2012
 | chapter =1
 | chapter-url =https://books.google.com/books?id=9euhPIt-d2oC&q=spy+school&pg=PA1
 | page =2
 | language =en
 | isbn =978-1479716494
}}{{self-published source|date=February 2022}}</ref>{{self-published inline|date=June 2020}} Americans whose heritage stemmed from [[Kingdom of Italy|Italy]], [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|Yugoslavia]], and [[Kingdom of Greece|Greece]] were trained at the "Spy School"<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150906063725/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/intelligence-history/oss/art06.htm Secret Intelligence (SI)], [https://web.archive.org/web/20150906073419/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/intelligence-history/oss/art05.htm Special Operations (SO)], [https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2010-featured-story-archive/oss-morale-operations.html Morale Operations (MO)] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110525163418/https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2010-featured-story-archive/oss-morale-operations.html |date=May 25, 2011 }}</ref> and also sent for parachute, weapons, and commando training, and Morse code and encryption lessons at STS 102.<ref>{{cite book| last1=Wilkinson| first1=Peter| last2=Foot| first2=M. R. D| title=Foreign Fields: The Story of an SOE Operative| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G_PbKWaqtIYC&q=ramat+david+and+soe+and+training&pg=PA133| publisher=I.B.Tauris| year= 2002| isbn=978-1860647796}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| title=A Most Ungentlemanly Way of War| last=Horn| first=Bernd| date=2016| publisher=Dundurn| isbn=9781459732797| location=Toronto| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S1ekCAAAQBAJ&q=sts+and+102+and+SOE&pg=PT67}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/oss/chap8.pdf |title=History |website=www.nps.gov }}</ref> After completion of their spy training, these agents were sent back on missions to the [[Balkan Campaign (World War II)|Balkans]] and [[Military history of Italy during World War II|Italy]] where their accents would not pose a problem for their assimilation.<ref>{{cite AV media
 | people =William J. Donovan, William Fairbairn, William Stephenson, Frank Gleason, Guy D'Artois, Helias Doundoulakis
 | title =World War II Spy School
 | medium =Film
 | publisher =YAP Films
 | location =USA, Canada
 | date =2014
 | url =https://www.smithsonianchannel.com/videos/how-to-lie-for-your-life/34349}}
</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kp7mDiMJ0W0C&dq=training+facility+cairo+egypt+oss&pg=PT99|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20170315094401/https://books.google.com/books?id=kp7mDiMJ0W0C&pg=PT99&lpg=PT99&dq=training+facility+cairo+egypt+oss&source=bl&ots=a6VzCjNtpi&sig=BfB5fiwgysiETI_zYOWxq0HSdGY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjXu6X03NbSAhVC9IMKHZAJAQUQ6AEIIjAB|url-status=dead|title=The Secret Rescue: An Untold Story of American Nurses and Medics Behind Nazi Lines|first=Cate|last=Lineberry|date=May 7, 2013|archivedate=March 15, 2017|publisher=Hachette+ORM|isbn = 9780316220231|via=Google Books}}</ref>

==Personnel==
The names of all 13,000 OSS personnel and documents of their OSS service, previously a closely guarded secret, were released by the US [[National Archives and Records Administration|National Archives]] on August 14, 2008.  Among the 24,000 names were those of [[Sterling Hayden]], [[Milton Wolff#World War II|Milton Wolff]], [[Carl C. Cable]], [[Julia Child]], [[Ralph Bunche]], [[Arthur Goldberg]], [[Saul K. Padover]], [[Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.]], [[Bruce Sundlun]], [[William Colby]], [[René Joyeuse]], and [[John Ford]].<ref name="auto">{{cite web|last=Patrick|first=Jeanette|title=The Recipe for Adventure: Chef Julia Child's World War II Service|publisher=[[National Women's History Museum]]|year=2017|website=www.womenshistory.org|url=https://www.womenshistory.org/articles/recipe-adventure}}</ref><ref name=cnn /><ref>Blackledge, Brett J. and Herschaft, Randy [https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080814/ap_on_go_ot/spies_revealed, "Documents: Julia Child part of WW II-era spy ring"], [[Associated Press]]</ref> The 750,000 pages in the 35,000 personnel files include applications of people who were not recruited or hired, as well as the service records of those who served.<ref>[https://www.archives.gov/research/military/ww2/oss/personnel-files.html Office of Strategic Services Personnel Files from World War II] – overview page, search links, digital excerpts;
[https://catalog.archives.gov/id/1593270 National Archives Identifier 1593270: Personnel Files, compiled 1942 - 1945, documenting the period 1941 - 1945], from Record Group 226: Records of the Office of Strategic Services, 1919 - 2002; [https://www.archives.gov/iwg/declassified-records/rg-226-oss/personnel-database.pdf Personnel database] – complete list</ref>

OSS soldiers were primarily inducted from the [[United States Armed Forces]]. Other members included foreign nationals including displaced individuals from the former czarist Russia, an example being Prince [[Serge Obolensky]].

Donovan sought independent thinkers, and in order to bring together those many intelligent, quick-witted individuals who could think out-of-the box, he chose them from all walks of life, backgrounds, without distinction to culture or religion. [[William J. Donovan|Donovan]] was quoted as saying, "I'd rather have a young lieutenant with enough guts to disobey a direct order than a colonel too regimented to think for himself." In a matter of a few short months, he formed an organization which equalled and then rivalled Great Britain's [[Secret Intelligence Service]] and its [[Special Operations Executive]]. Donovan, inspired by Britain's SOE, assembled an outstanding group of clinical psychologists to carry out evaluations of potential OSS candidates at a variety of sites, primary among these was Station S in Northern Virginia near where Dulles International Airport now stands.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Office of Strategic Services Assessment Staff |title=Assessment of men: Selection of personnel for the Office of Strategic Services |date=1948 |publisher=Rinehart |location=New York}}</ref> Recent research from remaining records from the OSS Station S program describes how those characteristics (independent thought, effective intelligence, interpersonal skills) were found among OSS candidates <ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lenzenweger |first1=Mark F. |title=Factors Underlying the Psychological and Behavioral Characteristics of Office of Strategic Services Candidates: The Assessment of Men Data Revisited |journal=Journal of Personality Assessment |date=2015 |volume=97 |issue=1 |pages=100–110 |doi=10.1080/00223891.2014.935980|pmid=25036728 |s2cid=9440624 }}</ref>
[[File:MoeBergGoudeycard.jpg|thumb|[[Major league baseball]] player [[Moe Berg]] of the [[Boston Red Sox]] was an OSS agent.]] One such agent was [[Ivy League]] [[Multilingualism|polyglot]] and [[American Jews|Jewish American]] [[American baseball|baseball]] catcher [[Moe Berg]], who played 15 seasons in the major leagues. As a Secret Intelligence agent, he was dispatched to seek information on German physicist [[Werner Heisenberg]] and his knowledge on the [[Nuclear weapon|atomic bomb]].<ref>{{cite AV media
 | people = Lewin, Ben (Director)
 | title = The Catcher Was a Spy
 | medium = Movie
 | location = United States, Japan, Yugoslavia
 | date = 2018 }}</ref> One of the most highly decorated and flamboyant OSS soldiers was US [[United States Marine Corps|Marine]] [[Colonel]] [[Peter J. Ortiz|Peter Ortiz]]. Enlisting early in the war, as a [[French Foreign Legion]]naire, he went on to join the OSS and to be the most highly decorated US Marine in the OSS during [[World War II]].<ref name=TECOM>{{cite web |url=http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/HD/PDF_Files/Pubs/WWII/A%20Different%20War-Marines%20in%20Europe%20&%20North%20Africa%20PCN%2019000312500.pdf |title=A Different War: Marines in Europe and North Africa |author=Lieutenant Colonel Harry W. Edwards |publisher=USMC Training and Education Command |access-date=October 3, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615064333/http://www.tecom.usmc.mil/HD/PDF_Files/Pubs/WWII/A%20Different%20War-Marines%20in%20Europe%20%26%20North%20Africa%20PCN%2019000312500.pdf |archive-date=June 15, 2011 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref> [[File:Peter Ortiz.jpg|thumb|left|Col. Peter Ortiz, [[USMC]]]] [[Julia Child]], who later authored cookbooks, worked directly under Donovan.<ref name="abc">{{cite web|title=Julia Child Dished Out ... Spy Secrets?|url=https://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/story?id=5579095|publisher=ABC|date=2008-08-14|access-date=2010-02-16}}</ref>
[[René Joyeuse]] [[Doctor of Medicine|M.D.]], [[Master of Science|MS]], [[Fellow of the American College of Surgeons|FACS]] was a Swiss, French and American soldier, physician and researcher, who distinguished himself as an agent of Allied intelligence in German-occupied France during World War II. He received the US Army Distinguished Service Cross for his actions with the OSS, after the war he became a Physician, Researcher and was a co-founder of The American Trauma Society.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.adirondackdailyenterprise.com/news/local-news/2013/03/arlington-burial-for-saranac-lake-wwii-spy-is-march-29/|title=Arlington burial for Saranac Lake WWII spy is March 29 &#124; News, Sports, Jobs - Adirondack Daily Enterprise}}</ref><ref>''Wild Bill Donovan: The Last Hero'' by Anthony Cave Brown</ref>

[[Joe Savoldi|"Jumping Joe" Savoldi]] (code name Sampson) was recruited by the OSS in 1942 because of his hand-to-hand combat and language skills as well as his deep knowledge of the Italian geography and [[Benito Mussolini|Benito Mussolini's]] compound. He was assigned to the [[Special Operations Branch]] and took part in missions in North Africa, Italy, and France during 1943–1945.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JJ.1943.FacistPartyGiuseppeDeLeo3.tif|title=English: OSS created this false ID for Joe Savoldi - posing as Giuseppe De Leo while infiltrating the black market in Naples|last=Baminvestor|date=January 20, 2004|access-date=February 19, 2017|via=Wikimedia Commons}}</ref><ref>''Cloak and Dagger: The Secret Story of the Office of Strategic Services'' Chapter IX "The Saga of Jumping Joe" page 150</ref><ref>''Wild Bill Donovan: The Last Hero'' by Anthony Cave Brown page 352 and Savoldi's personal notes from July 8–16, 1943 (now in the possession of family members.)</ref>  
[[File:JJ.1943.FacistPartyGiuseppeDeLeo3.tif|thumb|left|OSS created this false ID for Joe Savoldi - posing as Giuseppe De Leo while infiltrating the black market in Naples.]] One of the forefathers of today's commandos was Navy Lieutenant [[Jack Hendrick Taylor|Jack Taylor]]. He was sequestered by the OSS early in the war and had a long career behind enemy lines.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://navysealmuseum.com/about-navy-seals/seal-history-the-naval-special-warfare-story/seal-history-first-airborne-frogmen|title=SEAL History: First Airborne Frogmen - National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum|work=NavySealMuseum.com|access-date=February 19, 2017}}</ref>

[[Taro Yashima|Taro]] and [[Mitsu Yashima]], both Japanese political dissidents who were imprisoned in Japan for protesting its militarist regime, worked for the OSS in psychological warfare against the Japanese Empire.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2011/09/11/commentary/taro-yashima-an-unsung-beacon-for-all-against-evil-on-this-earth/|title=Taro Yashima: an unsung beacon for all against 'evil on this Earth' - The Japan Times|work=The Japan Times|date=September 11, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=March 18, 2007|url=http://www.sfgate.com/performance/article/An-unlikely-heroine-of-World-War-II-2569670.php|title=An unlikely heroine of World War II|work=SFGate}}</ref>

'''Nisei linguists'''

In late 1943, a representative from OSS visited the 442nd Infantry Regiment looking to recruit volunteers willing to undertake "extremely hazardous assignment."<ref name="cia.gov">{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2012-featured-story-archive/japanese-americans-WWII-intel.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120713030615/https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2012-featured-story-archive/japanese-americans-WWII-intel.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 13, 2012|title=Japanese Americans in World War II Intelligence — Central Intelligence Agency|website=www.cia.gov|language=en|access-date=2017-02-22}}</ref>  All selected were [[Nisei]]. The recruits  were assigned to OSS Detachments 101 and 202, in the China-Burma-India Theater. "Once deployed, they were to interrogate prisoners, translate documents, monitor radio communications, and conduct covert operations... Detachment 101 and 102's clandestine operations were extremely successful."<ref name="cia.gov"/>

==Dissolution into other agencies==
On September 20, 1945, President [[Harry S. Truman]] signed Executive Order 9621, terminating the OSS.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/executive-order-9621-termination-the-office-strategic-services-and-disposition-its|title=Executive Order 9621—Termination of the Office of Strategic Services and Disposition of Its Functions|date=September 20, 1945|via=The American Presidency Project}}</ref> Due to administrative error, the order only allowed the agency ten days to close.<ref>{{Cite book |title=CIA and the Pursuit of Security: History, Documents and Contexts |last=Huw |first=Dylan |date=2020-04-30 |publisher=Edinburgh University Press |isbn=978-1474428873|page=10}}</ref> The State Department took over the [[Research and Analysis Branch]] (R&A); it became the [[Bureau of Intelligence and Research]], The War Department took over the [[Secret Intelligence Branch|Secret Intelligence]] (SI) and [[counter-espionage|Counter-Espionage]] ([[X-2 Counter Espionage Branch|X-2]]) Branches, which were then housed in the new [[Strategic Services Unit]] (SSU). Brigadier General [[John Magruder (Brigadier General)|John Magruder]] (formerly Donovan's Deputy Director for Intelligence in OSS) became the new SSU director. He oversaw the liquidation of the OSS and managed the institutional preservation of its clandestine intelligence capability.<ref>George C. Chalou, ed. ''The Secret War'' (1992), pp 95-97.</ref>

In January 1946, President Truman created the [[Central Intelligence Group]] (CIG),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945-50Intel/d71|title=71. Presidential Directive on Coordination of Foreign Intelligence Activities|publisher=U.S. State Department Historian|date=January 22, 1946}}</ref> which was the direct precursor to the CIA. SSU assets, which now constituted a streamlined "nucleus" of clandestine intelligence, were transferred to the CIG in mid-1946 and reconstituted as the Office of Special Operations (OSO). The [[National Security Act of 1947]] established the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], which then took up some OSS functions. The direct descendant of the paramilitary component of the OSS is the CIA [[Special Activities Division]].<ref>Waller, Douglas "CIA's Secret Army", ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' (2003)</ref>

Today, the joint-branch [[United States Special Operations Command]], founded in 1987, uses the same spearhead design on its insignia, as homage to its indirect lineage. The [[Defense Intelligence Agency]] currently manages the OSS' mandate to provide strategic military intelligence to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense and to coordinate human espionage activities across the United States Armed Forces (through the [[Defense Clandestine Service]]) and was awarded status as an OSS Heritage organization by the [[OSS Society]].

==Branches==
<!-- Please keep entries in alphabetical order -->
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* Censorship and Documents
* Field Experimental Unit
* Foreign Nationalities
* [[OSS Maritime Unit|Maritime Unit]]
* [[Morale Operations Branch|Morale Operations]]
* [[Operational Group Command]]
* [[Research and Analysis Branch|Research & Analysis]]
* [[Secret Intelligence Branch|Secret Intelligence]]<ref>For all branch information: {{cite web|last=Clancey|first=Patrick|title=Office of Strategic Services (OSS) Organization and Functions|url=http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USG/JCS/OSS/OSS-Functions/index.html|publisher=HyperWar|access-date=July 12, 2011}}</ref>
* Security
* [[Special Operations Branch|Special Operations]]
* Special Projects
* [[X-2 Counter Espionage Branch|X-2]] ([[counterespionage]])
{{div col end}}
<!-- please keep entries in alphabetical order -->

==Detachments==
<!-- Please keep entries in alphabetical order -->
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[OSS Deer Team]]: Vietnam
* [[OSS Detachment 101]]: Burma
* OSS Detachment 202: China
* OSS Detachment 303: New Delhi, India
* OSS Detachment 404: attached to British [[South East Asia Command]] in [[Kandy]], [[Sri Lanka|Ceylon]]
* OSS Detachment 505: [[Calcutta, India]]
{{div col end}}
<!-- please keep entries in alphabetical order -->
;US Army units attached to the OSS
<!-- Please keep entries in alphabetical order -->
{{div col|colwidth=30em}}
* [[2671st Special Reconnaissance Battalion (United States)|2671st Special Reconnaissance Battalion]]
* [[2677th Office of Strategic Services Regiment (United States)|2677th Office of Strategic Services Regiment]]
{{div col end}}
<!-- please keep entries in alphabetical order -->

==See also==
{{Portal|United States}}
* [[Charles Douglas Jackson]]
* [[Dick Ellis]]
* [[Operation Jedburgh]]
* [[Operation Paperclip]]
* [[Paramarines]]
* [[Special Forces (United States Army)]]
* [[X-2 Counter Espionage Branch]]
* [[History of espionage]]
* [[Art Looting Investigation Unit|Art Looting Investigation Unit (ALIU)]]
* [[Millard Preston Goodfellow]]
* [[William J. Donovan]]
* [[The Pond (intelligence organization)|The Pond]]
* [[Garland H. Williams]]

== Citations ==
{{Reflist}}

== General and cited references ==
* {{Cite journal|last=Paulson|first=Alan|year=1995|title=Required reading: OSS Weapons.|journal=Fighting Firearms|volume=3 |issue=2|pages=20–21, 80–81}}
* {{Cite book|title=OSS Crossbows|last=Brunner|first=John|publisher=Phillips Publications|year=1991|isbn=0932572154}}
* {{Cite book|title=OSS Weapons II|last=Brunner|first=John|publisher=Phillips Publications|year=2005|isbn=978-0932572431}}

==Further reading==
{{Div col}}
* Aldrich, Richard J. ''Intelligence and the War Against Japan: Britain, America and the Politics of Secret Service'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) {{ISBN|0521641861}}
* [[Stewart Alsop|Alsop, Stewart]] and Braden, Thomas. ''Sub Rosa: The OSS and American Espionage'' (New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1946)  {{OCLC|1226266}}
* Bank, Aaron. ''From OSS to Green Berets: The Birth of Special Forces'' (Novato, CA: Presidio, 1986) {{ISBN|0891412719}}
* Bartholomew-Feis, Dixee R. ''The OSS and Ho Chi Minh: Unexpected Allies in the War against Japan'' (Lawrence : University Press of Kansas, 2006) {{ISBN|0700614311}}
* Bernstein, Barton J. "Birth of the U.S. biological warfare program" ''[[Scientific American]]'' 256: 116 – 121, 1987.
* Brown, Anthony Cave. ''The Last Hero: Wild Bill Donovan'' (New York: Times Books, 1982) {{ISBN|0812910214}}
* Brunner, John W. ''OSS Weapons''. Phillips Publications, Williamstown, N.J., 1994. {{ISBN|0-932572-21-9}}.
* Burke, Michael.  "Outrageous Good Fortune: A Memoir"  (Boston-Toronto:  Little, Brown and Company)
* [[William J. Casey|Casey, William J.]] ''The Secret War Against Hitler'' (Washington: Regnery Gateway, 1988) {{ISBN|089526563X}}
* Chalou, George C. (ed.) ''The Secrets War: The Office of Strategic Services in World War II'' (Washington: National Archives and Records Administration, 1991) {{ISBN|0911333916}}
* Chambers II, John Whiteclay. ''OSS Training in the National Parks and Service Abroad in World War II''  (NPS, 2008)  [https://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/oss/  online]; chapters 1-2 and 8-11 provide a useful summary history of OSS by a scholar.
* Cibulka, Erich. ''Deckname Dogwood. Erinnerungen an Alfred Schwarz.'' Buchschmiede, Wien 2022, {{ISBN|978-3-99139-139-5}}
* Dawidoff, Nicholas. ''The Catcher was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg'' ( New York: Vintage Books, 1994) {{ISBN|0679415661}}
* [[Helias Doundoulakis|Doundoulakis, Helias]]. ''[http://www.trainedtobeanossspy.com/ Trained to be an OSS Spy]'' (Xlibris, 2014) {{OCLC|907008535}}. {{ISBN|9781499059830}}{{Self-published inline|certain=yes|date=December 2017}}
* [[Allen Dulles|Dulles, Allen]]. ''The Secret Surrender'' (New York: Harper & Row, 1966) {{OCLC|711869}}
* Dunlop, Richard. ''Donovan: America's Master Spy'' (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1982) {{ISBN|0528811177}}
* Fink, Jesse. ''The Eagle in the Mirror'' (Edinburgh: Black & White Publishing, 2023) {{ISBN|9781785305108}}
* Ford, Corey. ''Donovan of OSS'' (Boston: Little, Brown, 1970) {{OCLC|836436423}}
* Ford, Corey, MacBain A.  "Cloak and Dagger: The Secret Story of O.S.S." (New York: Random House 1945,1946) {{OCLC|1504392}}
* Grose, Peter. ''Gentleman Spy: The Life of Allen Dulles'' (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1994) {{ISBN|0395516072}}
* Hassell, A, and MacRae, S: ''Alliance of Enemies: The Untold Story of the Secret American and German Collaboration to End World War II'', Thomas Dunne Books, 2006. {{ISBN|0312323697}}
* Hunt, E. Howard. ''American Spy'', 2007
* Jakub, Jay. ''Spies and Saboteurs: Anglo-American Collaboration and Rivalry in Human Intelligence Collection and Special Operations, 1940–45'' (New York: St. Martin's, 1999)
* Jones, Ishmael. ''The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture'' (New York: Encounter Books, 2008, rev 2010) {{ISBN|9781594032745}}
* Katz, Barry M. ''Foreign Intelligence: Research and Analysis in the Office of Strategic Services, 1942–1945'' (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989)
* Kent, Sherman. ''Strategic Intelligence for American Foreign Policy'' (Hamden, CT: Archon, 1965 [1949])
* {{Cite book |last=Lisle |first=John |url= |title=The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare |date=2023 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |isbn=978-1-250-28024-4 |edition=First |location=New York |oclc=1343299425}}
* {{Cite book|last=Lovell|first=Stanley P.|year=1963|title=Of Spies and Stratagems|publisher=[[Prentice Hall]]|location=[[Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey|Englewood Cliffs]], [[New Jersey]]|asin=B000LBAQYS|page=79}}
* [[Elizabeth Peet McIntosh|McIntosh, Elizabeth P.]] ''Sisterhood of Spies: The Women of the OSS'' (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 1998) {{ISBN|1557505985}}
* Mauch, Christof. ''The Shadow War Against Hitler: The Covert Operations of America's Wartime Secret Intelligence Service'' (2005), scholarly history of OSS.
* Melton, H. Keith. ''OSS Special Weapons and Equipment: Spy Devices of World War II'' (New York: Sterling Publishing, 1991) {{ISBN|0806982381}}
* Moulin, Pierre. ''U.S. Samurais in Bruyeres'' (CPL Editions: Luxembourg, 1993) {{ISBN|2959998405}}
* Paulson, A.C. 1989. ''OSS Silenced Pistol''. Machine Gun News. 3(6):28-30.
* Paulson, A.C. 1995. ''OSS Weapons''. Fighting Firearms. 3(2):20-21,80-81.
* Paulson, A.C. 2002. ''HDMS silenced .22 pistols in Vietnam''. The Small Arms Review. 5(7):119-120.
* Paulson, A.C. 2003. ''WWII vintage silent .22LR'' [High Standard OSS HDMS pistol]. Guns & Weapons for Law Enforcement. 15(2):24-29,72.
* Persico, Joseph E. ''Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage'' (2001).
* Persico, Joseph E. ''Piercing the Reich: The Penetration of Nazi Germany by American Secret Agents During World War II'' (New York: Viking, 1979) Reprinted in 1997 by Barnes & Noble Books.  {{ISBN|076070242X}}
* Peterson, Neal H. (ed.) ''From Hitler's Doorstep: The Wartime Intelligence Reports of Allen Dulles, 1942–1945'' (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1996)
* Pinck, Daniel C. ''Journey to Peking: A Secret Agent in Wartime China'' (Naval Institute Press, 2003) {{ISBN|1591146771}}
* Pinck, Daniel C., Jones, Geoffrey M.T. and Pinck, Charles T. (eds.) ''Stalking the History of the Office of Strategic Services: An OSS Bibliography'' (Boston: OSS/Donovan Press, 2000) {{ISBN|0967573602}}
* [[Kermit Roosevelt|Roosevelt, Kermit]] (ed.) ''War Report of the OSS'', two volumes (New York: Walker, 1976) {{ISBN|0802705294}}
* Rudgers, David F. ''Creating the Secret State: The Origins of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1943–1947'' (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 2000) {{ISBN|0700610243}}
* Smith, Bradley F. and Agarossi, Elena. ''Operation Sunrise: The Secret Surrender'' (New York: Basic Books, 1979) {{ISBN|0465052908}}
* Smith, Bradley F. ''The Shadow Warriors: OSS and the Origins of the CIA'' (New York: Basic, 1983) {{ISBN|0465077560}}
* Smith, Richard Harris. ''OSS: The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency'' (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972; Guilford, CT: Lyons Press, 2005) {{ISBN|0520020235}}
* Steury, Donald P. ''The Intelligence War'' (New York: Metrobooks, 2000)
* Sutton, M. A. (2019). ''Double Crossed: The Missionaries Who Spied for the United States During the Second World War''. Basic Books. {{ISBN|0465052665}}
* Troy, Thomas F. ''Donovan and the CIA: A History of the Establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency'' (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1981) {{OCLC|7739122}}
* Troy, Thomas F. ''Wild Bill & Intrepid'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996) {{ISBN|0300065639}}
* Waller, John H. ''The Unseen War in Europe: Espionage and Conspiracy in the Second World War'' (New York: Random House, 1996) {{ISBN|0679448268}}
* Warner, Michael. ''The Office of Strategic Services: America's First Intelligence Agency'' (Washington, D.C.: Central Intelligence Agency, 2001) {{OCLC| 52058428}}
* Yu, Maochun. ''OSS in China: Prelude to Cold War'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996) {{ISBN|159114986X}}
{{Div col end}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20130306080324/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/oss/index.htm "The Office of Strategic Services: America's First Intelligence Agency"]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131126180314/http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/oss/index.htm National Park Service Report on OSS Training Facilities]
* [http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/psf/box4/folo54.html Collection of Documents at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Museum and Library, Part 1] and [http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/psf/box4/folo55.html Part 2]
* [http://www.osssociety.org The OSS Society]
* [http://www.ossreborn.com OSS Reborn]
* {{Gutenberg author | id=31855| name=Office of Strategic Services}}
* [[iarchive:office-strategic-services|Office of Strategic Services collection]] at [[Internet Archive]]
* {{Internet Archive author |search=("Office of Strategic Services" OR "OSS")}}
* {{Librivox author |id=5312}}

{{Intelligence agencies of USA|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}

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[[Category:1945 disestablishments in the United States]]
[[Category:Agencies of the United States government during World War II]]
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[[Category:Government agencies established in 1942]]
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