Office of Strategic Services

The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was a US intelligence agency operating during the Second World War.
OSS head William Donovan had been close to British Security Coordination (BSC), which was instrumental in the Office's creation. Many other BSC agents and collaborators became involved with the OSS. Thomas E. Mahl, Desperate Deception, Brassey's 1999, p.182.
President Truman ordered the OSS disbanded on 20 September 1945.Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.8. However, on 26 September, Donovan's Deputy, General John Magruder secured an order from Assistant Secretary of War John McCloy which preserved its operations as the Strategic Services Unit, keeping alive the hopes of those who advocated what would later become the Central Intelligence Agency.Tim Weiner, Legacy of Ashes, Penguin, 2007, p.10.
==Structure and Personnel==
*William Donovan - head
===Research and Analysis Branch (R&A)===
Main Page: OSS Research and Analysis Branch
===Special Operations Branch (SO)===
*Robert Solborg - first head of branch.R. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Intelligence Agency, University of California Press, 1972, p.27.
*Paul Mellon - administrative officer of SO in London.R. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Intelligence Agency, University of California Press, 1972, p.15.
===Secret Intelligence Branch (SI)===
* Whitney Hart Shepardson - head of SI in LondonR. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Intelligence Agency, University of California Press, 1972, p.54.
*Arthur Roseborough - head of SI Western Europe desk in WashingtonR. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Intelligence Agency, University of California Press, 1972, p.54.
*Leon Dostert - French SI desk in WashingtonR. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Intelligence Agency, University of California Press, 1972, p.59.
*Ricardo Mazzerini SI Italian desk in LondonR. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Intelligence Agency, University of California Press, 1972, p.84.
*Earl BrennanR. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Intelligence Agency, University of California Press, 1972, p.84.
===Morale Operations Branch (MO)===
Main Page: OSS Morale Operations Branch
*Abraham PolonskyR. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Intelligence Agency, University of California Press, 1972, p.13.
*Paul Mellon - Head of MO in Luxembourg.R. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Intelligence Agency, University of California Press, 1972, p.15.
===Foreign Nationalities Branch===
*Dewitt Poole - Head of branch.R. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Intelligence Agency, University of California Press, 1972, p.25.
===X-2 Branch===
===Miscellaneous officers===
*James Murphy - head of CounterintelligenceR. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Intelligence Agency, University of California Press, 1972, p.12.
*William Phillips - Chief of London MissionR. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Intelligence Agency, University of California Press, 1972, p.53.
*David Bruce - Chief of London MissionR. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Intelligence Agency, University of California Press, 1972, p.9.
*Lester Armour - Chief of London MissionR. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Intelligence Agency, University of California Press, 1972, p.16.
*Allen Dulles - Chief of Mission in SwitzerlandR. Harris Smith, OSS: The Secret History of America's First Intelligence Agency, University of California Press, 1972, p.9.
Stewart Alsop | Victor Anfuso | James Angleton | J.H. Angleton | Alexander Barmine | Tracy Barnes | Thomas Beale | André Bourgoin | Beverly Bowie | Thomas W. Braden | Gordon Browne | Ivar Bryce | Edward Buxton | Clifton C. Carter | William Casey | Thomas Cassady | Douglass Cater | Julia McWilliams Child | Carleton Coon | Max Corvo | John Croze | Ralph de Toledano | C. Douglas Dillon | Donald Downes | Hilaire du Berrier | William Eddy | Richard Ellman | Charles B. Fahs | Irving Fajans | Milton Felsen | Eugene Fodor | John Ford | John Gardner | George Garrett | Chadbourne Gilpatric | Marcello Girosi | Arthur Goldberg | M. Preston Goodfellow | Irving Goff | Raymond Guest | Murray Gurfein | Joe Haskell | John Haskell | Sterling Hayden| August Heckscher | Richard Helms | Ernest Hemingway | John Hemingway | Kenneth Hinks | Philip Horton | H. Stuart Hughes | John C. Hughes | E. Howard Hunt | Ellery Huntington, Jr | James Jiminez | Michael Jiminez | Albert Jolis | Carl Kaysen | Vincent Lassowski | Russell Livermore | John Magruder | Kenneth Mann | Edwin Martin | Turner McBaine | Clark McGregor | Francis Pickens Miller | Henry Morgan | Junius Morgan | William Morgan | Henry Murray | Henry Ringling North | Serge Obolensky | Alfred Parry | Norman Holmes Pearson | Warwick Potter | Louis Ream | Atherton Richards | James Grafton Rogers | Serafino Romualdi | Kermit Roosevelt | Leland Rounds | Jerry Sage | Antoine de Saint-Exupéry | John Sawyer | Vincent Scamporino Arthur Schlesinger | Frank Schoonmaker | John Shaheen | Nicol Smith | Donald Steele | Edmond Taylor | H. Gregory Thomas | Ilia Tolstoy | Peter Tompkins | Royall Tyler | Gerhard Van Arkel | William Vanderbilt | John Whitaker | George White | John Hay Whitney | Garland Williams | Frank Wisner | Milton Wolff
==External Resources==
*Records of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), US National Archives.
*William E. Scheuerman, The Frankfurt School at War, Foreign Affairs, July/August 2013.
==Notes==
Category:Spooks
Category:OSS