The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was an intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) 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.
William Joseph "Wild Bill" Donovan was an American soldier, lawyer, intelligence officer and diplomat. He is best known for serving as the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), during World War II. He is regarded as the founding father of the CIA, and a statue of him stands in the lobby of the CIA headquarters building in Langley, Virginia.
Operation Cornflakes was a morale operation by the Office of Strategic Services during World War II that aimed to trick Deutsche Reichspost into inadvertently delivering anti-Nazi propaganda to German citizens through mail.
Detachment 101 of the Office of Strategic Services operated in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II. On 17 January 1956, it was awarded a Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation by President Dwight Eisenhower, who wrote: "The courage and fighting spirit displayed by its officers and men in offensive action against overwhelming enemy strength reflect the highest tradition of the armed forces of the United States."
David Kirkpatrick Este Bruce was an American diplomat, intelligence officer and politician. He served as ambassador to France, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the United Kingdom, the only American to be all three.
John L. Magruder was a Brigadier general in the U.S. Army. Among his offices was that of Deputy Director for Intelligence for the Office of Strategic Services.
Central Intelligence Group (CIG), was the direct successor to the Office of Strategic Services, and the direct predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency.
Ellery Channing Huntington Jr. was an American football player and coach. He played college football as a quarterback at Colgate University. Huntington also served as the 19th head football coach at Colgate, holding that position for three seasons, from 1919 until 1921 and compiling a record of 10–10–5. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in 1972.
The Strategic Services Unit was an intelligence agency of the United States government that existed in the immediate post–World War II period. It was created from the Secret Intelligence and Counter-Espionage branches of the wartime Office of Strategic Services.
Whitney Hart Shepardson was an American businessman and foreign policy expert. He headed the Secret Intelligence Branch of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II.
Morale Operations was a branch of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. It utilized psychological warfare, particularly propaganda, to produce specific psychological reactions in both the general population and military forces of the Axis powers in support of larger Allied political and military objectives.
The head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), William Donovan, created the X-2 Counter Espionage Branch in 1943 to provide liaison with and assist the British in its exploitation of the Ultra program's intelligence during World War II. A few months before, Donovan had established a Counterintelligence Division within the Secret Intelligence Branch of the OSS but rescinded this order upon development of the X-2. The X-2 was led by James Murphy, whose branch would have the power to veto operations of the Special Operations and Secret Intelligence Branches without explanation. Donovan modeled the Counter Espionage Branch on British Counter Espionage. With the creation of the X-2 Branch, the British insisted that it follow British security procedures to maintain the secrecy of Ultra. The X-2 established separate lines of communication for itself as a self-contained unit. By the end of World War II, the X-2 had discovered around 3,000 Axis agents.
Gonzalo Edward Buxton Jr. was a colonel in the American Expeditionary Force in World War I and the commanding officer of Sergeant Alvin C. York. In later life he was the first assistant director of the OSS.
The Research and Analysis Branch(R&A) was a branch of the Office of Strategic Services. (OSS) Established in the OCOI with the appointment of James Phinney Baxter III as the first Director of Research and Analysis, July 31, 1941, the branch became operational within the Office of the Coordinator of Information on August 27, 1941. With OSS General Order 1 on October 17, 1942, R&A was absorbed into the new structure of the OSS. On January 4, 1943, with the restructuring of the OSS in OSS General Order 9, R&A was placed under the leadership of the Deputy Director of the Intelligence Service.
The Maritime Unit (MU) was a branch of the Office of Strategic Services that enabled maritime warfare for the allies during WWII. MU's mission was to "infiltrate agents and supply resistance groups by sea, conduct maritime sabotage, and to develop specialized maritime surface and subsurface equipment and devices." MU developed specialized boats, equipment, and explosives, fashioned underwater breathing gear, waterproof watches and compasses, an inflatable motorized surfboard, and "a two-man kayak that proved so promising that 275 were ordered by the British."
Formerly known as the Veterans of the OSS, the OSS Society is the association of veterans of the Office of Strategic Services, dedicated to preserving the legacy of the famed intelligence agency.
The Special Operations Branch (SO) was a branch of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II that "pioneered" many of the unconventional warfare, counter-insurgency (COIN), and foreign internal defense tactics and techniques used by today's US Military Special Operations Forces (SOF). Special Operations was the American equivalent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) of the United Kingdom.
Operational Group Command (OG), was a branch of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II that specialized in guerrilla warfare and independent operations against designated Axis targets. The original A Teams of US Army Special Forces, Operational Detachments Alpha (ODA), are modeled after the successes of Operational Group Command and its groups.
Millard Preston Goodfellow, who often went by the name "Preston Goodfellow," was an American soldier, spy, diplomat, journalist, war correspondent, and newspaper publisher. A veteran of World War I, Goodfellow became a leading figure at the Office of the Coordinator of Information and the Office of Strategic Services during World War II.
Robert Solberg was a soldier and spy during World War I and World War II, becoming a key figure in the development of the Office of Strategic Services.
