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==Soviet penetration==

==Soviet penetration==

OSS had a dismal security reputation. Established agencies like the [[FBI]] and [[Military_intelligence#United_States_Army|G-2]] believed that Donovan's outfit, built from scratch with many corners cut in the hiring of its staff, had been penetrated with [[subversion (political)|subversives]] and spies.  At least fifteen Soviet agents penetrated the OSS, with the actual number more likely around twenty. <ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page58.html Exchange with Arthur Herman and ''Venona'' book talk], Joint Herman and Haynes Book Talk,  Borders, Washington, D.C., February 2000,</ref>

OSS had a dismal security reputation. Established agencies like the [[FBI]] and [[Military intelligence#United States Army|G-2]] believed that Donovan's outfit, built from scratch with many corners cut in the hiring of its staff, had been penetrated with [[subversion (political)|subversives]] and spies.  At least fifteen Soviet agents penetrated the OSS, with the actual number more likely around twenty.<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page58.html Exchange with Arthur Herman and ''Venona'' book talk], Joint Herman and Haynes Book Talk,  Borders, Washington, D.C., February 2000,</ref>

Soviet sympathizers and spies worked in OSS offices in Washington and the field. Some were hired precisely because they were [[Communists]]; Donovan wanted their help in dealing with partisan groups in Nazi-occupied Europe. Others who were not Communists, such as Donovan's aide [[Duncan Lee]], Research and Analysis (R&A) labor economist [[Donald Wheeler]], Morale Operations Indonesia expert [[Jane Foster Zlatowski]], and R&A Latin America specialist [[Maurice Halperin]], nevertheless passed information to Moscow. OSS operations in [[China]], moreover, were badly penetrated by Communist agents working as clerical and housekeeping staff, or training in OSS camps for operational missions. <ref>[http://webroots.org/library/usamisc/oss-cia0.html ''The Office of Strategic Services: America's First Intelligence Agency''], Michael Warner, CIA History Staff, Center for the Study of Intelligence, Published: United States Central Intelligence Agency, 2000. </ref>

Soviet sympathizers and spies worked in OSS offices in Washington and the field. Some were hired precisely because they were [[Communists]]; Donovan wanted their help in dealing with partisan groups in Nazi-occupied Europe. Others who were not Communists, such as Donovan's aide [[Duncan Lee]], Research and Analysis (R&A) labor economist [[Donald Wheeler]], Morale Operations Indonesia expert [[Jane Foster Zlatowski]], and R&A Latin America specialist [[Maurice Halperin]], nevertheless passed information to Moscow. OSS operations in [[China]], moreover, were badly penetrated by Communist agents working as clerical and housekeeping staff, or training in OSS camps for operational missions.<ref>[http://webroots.org/library/usamisc/oss-cia0.html ''The Office of Strategic Services: America's First Intelligence Agency''], Michael Warner, CIA History Staff, Center for the Study of Intelligence, Published: United States Central Intelligence Agency, 2000.</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.]]'s protested this violated an agreement President Roosevelt made with the Soviet Union not to interfere with Soviet cipher traffic from the U.S. 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.

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.]]'s protested this violated an agreement President Roosevelt made with the Soviet Union not to interfere with Soviet cipher traffic from the U.S. 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.

==Post war==

==Post war==

In October 1945 the OSS was dissolved and its functions were split between the Departments of State and War. State received the Research and Analysis Branch of OSS which was renamed the Interim Research and Intelligence Service (IRIS) and headed by Alfred McCormack. <ref>[http://www.loyola.edu/dept/politics/intel/frus-ie.txt Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment, 1945-1950], Office of the Historian, United States Department of State, July 1996.</ref>  The Department of War took over the Secret Intelligence (SI) and Counter-espionage (X-2) Branches that were housed in a new office created for just this purpose - The Strategic Services Unit (SSU). The Secretary of War appointed Brigadier General John Magruder (formerly Donovan's Deputy Director for Intelligence in OSS) as director to oversee the liquidation, and more importantly the preservation of the OSS' clandestine intelligence capability. In January of 1946, President Truman created the Central Intelligence Group (CIG) which was the direct precursor to the CIA. The assets of the SSU, which now constituted a streamlined "nucleus" of clandestine intelligence was transferred to the CIG in mid-1946 and reconstituted as the Office of Special Operations (OSO). In [[1947]] the [[National Security Act of 1947|National Security Act]] established America's first permanent peacetime intelligence agency, the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], which took up the functions of the OSS. <ref>[http://www.ncix.gov/issues/CI_Reader/Vol2/Vol2_TOC.pdf ''Counterintelligence Reader''], Vol. 2 Ch. 3, National Counterintelligence Center, 2004.</ref>

In October 1945 the OSS was dissolved and its functions were split between the Departments of State and War. State received the Research and Analysis Branch of OSS which was renamed the Interim Research and Intelligence Service (IRIS) and headed by Alfred McCormack.<ref>[http://www.loyola.edu/dept/politics/intel/frus-ie.txt Emergence of the Intelligence Establishment, 1945-1950], Office of the Historian, United States Department of State, July 1996.</ref>  The Department of War took over the Secret Intelligence (SI) and Counter-espionage (X-2) Branches that were housed in a new office created for just this purpose - The Strategic Services Unit (SSU). The Secretary of War appointed Brigadier General John Magruder (formerly Donovan's Deputy Director for Intelligence in OSS) as director to oversee the liquidation, and more importantly the preservation of the OSS' clandestine intelligence capability. In January 1946, President Truman created the Central Intelligence Group (CIG) which was the direct precursor to the CIA. The assets of the SSU, which now constituted a streamlined "nucleus" of clandestine intelligence was transferred to the CIG in mid-1946 and reconstituted as the Office of Special Operations (OSO). In [[1947]] the [[National Security Act of 1947|National Security Act]] established America's first permanent peacetime intelligence agency, the [[Central Intelligence Agency]], which took up the functions of the OSS.<ref>[http://www.ncix.gov/issues/CI_Reader/Vol2/Vol2_TOC.pdf ''Counterintelligence Reader''], Vol. 2 Ch. 3, National Counterintelligence Center, 2004.</ref>

==Famous OSS members==

==Famous OSS members==

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==External links==  

==External links==

*[http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/oss/ The CIA's OSS page]  

*[http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/oss/ The CIA's OSS page]  

*[http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/h/hitler-adolf/oss-papers/text/profile-index.html OSS psychological profile report] on [[Hitler]]  

*[http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/h/hitler-adolf/oss-papers/text/profile-index.html OSS psychological profile report] on [[Hitler]]