Customer Reviews

OSS: The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a female veteran of the Korean conflict this book was a wonderful part of American history and the part played by both young men and women who were willing to take chances. Most young people as well as older folks know very little about this part of history. The stories were well written and really make the reader reflect on how that part of the war was won!

As a student of the Second World War, I simply had to read this treatise on the OSS, which was dissolved at the end of the War. It took the U.S. several years to gear up to form the CIA, but as many know, some of the early CIA top echelon came from the OSS. And where did the OSS get its early operatives? They came from the top levels of American business, society, and old school networks--in short the "real" Americans who own this country (recall the film "The Good Shepherd" with Matt Damon, which is about the early OSS? In a scene from that film, Damon's character goes to the Jersey shore to recruit an Italian-American (played by Joe Pesci) in the early 1960s. JP's character asks, in short, all of the immigrant groups have something to gather around--what do you, the Yale graduate, the old-school boys have? "We have the United States of America" is the answer. And so it probably is today, or at least before the last administration--and probably is so deep within the present CIA.

On yhr original book's dust jacket, the question is asked, "What did Stewart Alsop, John Birch, Julia Child, Allen Dulles, John Gardner, Arthur Goldberg....and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. have in common?" They were in the OSS! Wild Bill Donovan may have recruited just about anyone for the OSS, even avowed Marxists and Communists, in the drive to defeat Fascism, but the effects of his methods linger on today worldwide. This book is a well-documented, well-written, and important history lesson. As the old saying goes, "you reap what you sow"--and we are still reaping what the OSS did during the Second World War. Any student of history, American history, the War, and international politics (which includes war, or politics by other means) would do well to read this book and heed the inherent warnings within; it was written as the edifice of nationalism in the United States began to wither, in the early 1970s, and we are seeing the effects of these attempts to further erode our national sovereignty now. The freewheeling OSS may have been part of the beginning of that destruction--or, at least, deconstruction.

This book is a must for anyone interested in the part Intelligence plays in the history of
our country- and its ramifications in the rest of the world . It is well researched, factual,
and presented to the readers clearly. Not only does it throw light on the importance of the
work done by the OSS during WW2, but lessons can be learned about the present time, especially
about the relationship between the different branches of our Intelligence System , as well
as that of Great Britain's . It is a great reference book, as well as a challenging one.
The roles played by the different heads of the Intelligence Agencies , even to petty
competing among them, are quite interesting - and give much food for thought. Recommended
reading , easy but revealing .

This work was the first genuinely scholarly work on the OSS. The author, an academician, wrote it way back when most OSS works were memoirs or compilations of tales of derring do or sensationalistic political acreeds concerning intelligence matters; although the still interesting memoirs and tales were fact based, those early books were based solely on memory and not on sound documentation. In addition many sensational critiques of intelligence agencies and the CIA msntioned some OSS activities. The date of 2005 given is that of the reprint, not the original 1972.
The former files of the OSS remained in use by the OSS's two successor agencies: the State Department's Intelligence Bureau (INR) and the War Department's Special Services Unit (SSU), which carried on the OSS's HUMINT clandestine operations. SSU in turn was folded in 1947 into the newly estabished CIA, which continued to use the classified OSS files and added to them. The former OSS files then continued in use for many years; in the eighties, the CIA finally weeded out sll the long since unecessary files concerning operational, organizational and procedural matters and sent them to the Nationsl Archives. Thia action resulted in a huge quantity of memoirs being written by veterans of OSS (c.f. Elizabeth MacIntosh's study of women in the OSS, "Sisterhood of Spies"), in technicals studies (c.f. John Brunner's "OSS Weapons" and in organizational histories (c.f. Yu's "OSS in China"). All of these and many similar recent studies I have reviewed on this site.
This pioneering work by Harris is necessarily sketchy due to lack of sources, being based on a few scattered memoirs and incomplete and undocumented popular publications and interviews, snd riddled with omissions and errors, has been overtaken by events.
The book is best looked at as a curiosity demonstrating the lack of public knowledge in its day, when CIA insiders remaining in the intelligence business were actively discouraged from publishing. Harris, having never been in the OSS, was not constrained by secrecy oaths from publishing what he could glean from no longer serving veterans and other sources.
Why this was reprinted is beyond me. There are enough copies to be found in the used book trade to satisfy the completist collector of OSS related works while to those who are doing current research, it is simply an obsolete curiousity.
Not all works published in the last fifty years are no longer of continuing validity; many first hand accounts and compilations of derring do tales are still valuble, for example "You're Stepping on My Cloak and Dagger". (c.f reviews on this site.)

FDR seemed to have a natural interest in spies. Before World War II started he had contacted William 'Wild Bill' Donovan and asked him to set up a foreign intelligence agency along the lines of what the British were doing. He formed just what FDR wanted and it was called the Office of Strategic Services, a non-descript name that could have meant anything. ==The OSS was a crazy agency that grew like crazy, eventually reaching some 10,000 people. All in all, the OSS provided some useful intelligence. They performed some useful operations during the war. They trained some very good people. This book will give you all the details. ==This whole concept was done over the intense opposition of J. Edgar Hoover who fought with every skill he had to prevent what he considered competition with the FBI. ==After FDR died, Truman and Donovan didn't get along all tht well. Truman shut down the OSS, but shortly thereafter realized that the Navy, the Army and the FBI along with all the others didn't play well together so he set up the CIA a few months later. ==Of course 9/11 taught us that none of them play well together now.

Recent archival research has partly superseded "OSS," but it remains a valuable survey of America's main undercover service in World War II. As a pioneering history, some facts inevitably have been supplemented and/or corrected, but the overall outline presented here is quite valid. The OSS collected intelligence and executed some useful operations, along with a few blunders (e.g. Allen Dulles's peace feelers to Nazi Germany, which outraged the USSR and briefly imperiled the alliance). But their efforts were largely peripheral to the major ground, air and sea campaigns. The book's main value now may be to suggest topics and raise questions for future research. It also contains a more subtle message in documenting the idealism and (often) progressive sympathies of citizen-soldiers dedicated to fighting Japanese and German tyrannies. Smith's 1972 publication reflected the backlash against the CIA and US militarism during the Vietnam War era. His vision of a clandestine outfit which actually promoted positive change, and respected expertise, offers hope in our current time of troubles. A CIA that routinely violates the Geneva Conventions with torture and kidnapping, and chickenhawk officials who pervert information-gathering in their rush to disaster overseas, are unworthy heirs of OSS veterans and the leaders of their time.

OSS is just what it claims to be--a history of the OSS. And somewhat tedious and dry for just that reason.
Unfortunately, that isn't exactly what I wanted, which was tales of OSS activities and shenanigans all over the world. I'll have to try elsewhere. You can find my copy of OSS on the Goodwill shelf for cheap.

Although I believe most of the info within is factual, I also believe the author has a political agenda. Makes me wonder whats been left out. No shortage of detail. Still a good read.