View source for Office of the Coordinator of Information

The '''Office of the Coordinator of Information''' was an intelligence agency of the [[Federal government of the United States|United States Government]], founded on July 11, 1941 by President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], prior to U.S. involvement in the [[World War II|Second World War]].  It was intended to overcome the lack of coordination between existing agencies which, in part, it did by duplicating some of their functions.

Roosevelt was encouraged to create the agency by British officials, John H. Godfrey, head of the British [[Naval Intelligence Division]] and [[William Stephenson]], head of [[British Security Coordination]] in [[New York City]].    New York attorney and Distinguished Service Cross recipient [[William Joseph Donovan]] was appointed head of the new agency.  The office acquired staff and offices from various existing departmental services, including the undercover branch of the [[Office of Naval Intelligence]].  The agency had a total staff of 600 and a budget of $10 million.

In 1942, following U.S. involvement in the war, the COI split in two, with covert operations coming under the control of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the [[Office of Strategic Services]], and propaganda operations being transferred to a newly formed [[United States Office of War Information|Office of War Information]].

==External links==
*[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications//oss/art02.htm COI Came First], from the website of the CIA


[[Category:New Deal]]
[[Category:World War II]]
[[Category:Espionage]]