The history of the office of strategic services oss

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Visit Website However, what was sorely lacking was a centralized agency within the government that could sort through information gathered from spies working on behalf of the country, analyze it and report it to relevant officials.

With that in mind, President Franklin D. Donovan to head the fledgling agency. The agency had some 12, staffers in WashingtonD. Within a year of that decision—and after the beginning of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union—the new president had a change of heart, though.

This position was generally filled by leaders from various fields, including the military, politics or business. A number of notable people held this post, including the first, Roscoe H.

Hillenkoetter, and former President George H. Bushwho served for two years in George Tenet was the DCI from toand some hold him, and the agency under his leadership, responsible for intelligence failures in the lead-up to the terrorist attacks of September 11, InCongress passed the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, which overhauled the leadership structure of the intelligence services and placed all of them—including the Department of Homeland Security and the CIA—under the auspices of the newly created position of Director of National Intelligence.

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Current Deputy Director Gina Haspel is a career-long intelligence officer. For example, declassified government records suggest that the CIA was behind the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.

The agency recruited Cuban exiles living in the United States and trained them in military tactics for an invasion of the island nation that had come under the leadership of communist Fidel Castro following a revolution.

Air America From the s through the s, a CIA-operated cargo and passenger airline company—called Air America—was created to enable the agency to access the areas in Southeast Asia that the U.

Air America was developed to provide a means for the CIA to track the influence of Communist China in the region, including countries such as Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

However, reports suggest that agency operatives became involved with groups engaged in the Asian opium and heroin trade, and that Air America was used to ship drugs around the region.

The entire Air America operation was eventually suspended in the s. Details of MK-Ultra and other Cold War-era programs became public induring a series of investigations into widespread illegal CIA activities—including assassinations of foreign leaders—around the world and within the United States.

More recently, in the s and s, the CIA was linked with the supply and sale of crack cocaine in Los Angeles in elsewhere, with the proceeds from these efforts allegedly being used to finance the activities of guerrilla fighters in Latin America. The Office of Strategic Services Society.

Panetta terminated secret program:Some 13, men and women worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the U.S. intelligence agency during World War II and the forerunner of the modern CIA. Stalking the History of the Office of Strategic Services: An OSS Bibliography [Dan C.

Pinck, Geoffrey M.T. Jones, Charles T. Pinck, Robin W. Winks] on benjaminpohle.com *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers.4/4(1). History: Established, effective October 19, , by General Order 1, OSS, October 17, , and made responsible to Office of the Deputy Director--OSS Services (see ), established by same order.

With Personnel Procurement Branch, transferred to ODSS and made responsible to newly established Office of the Deputy Director--Personnel, by. Office of Strategic Services (OSS), agency of the U.S.

federal government (–45) formed for the purpose of obtaining information about and sabotaging the military efforts of enemy nations during World War II.

It was headed by William J. (“Wild Bill”) Donovan (–). The Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services by Bruce L.

Office of Strategic Services Society

Brager Intelligence collection played a role in American history even before the nation declared its independence. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was a United States intelligence agency formed during World War II.

It was a wartime intelligence agency, and a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).