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

by Richard Harris Smith Narrated by Joe Barrett

Overview

In the months before World War II, FDR prepared the country for conflict with Germany and Japan by reshuffling various government agencies to create the Office of Strategic Services-America's first intelligence agency and the direct precursor to the CIA. When he charged William ("Wild Bill") Donovan, a successful Wall Street lawyer and Wilkie Republican, to head up the office, the die was set for some of the most fantastic and fascinating operations the U.S. government has ever conducted.



Author Richard Harris Smith, himself an ex-CIA hand, documents the controversial agency from its conception as a spin-off of the Office of the Coordinator for Information to its demise under Harry Truman and reconfiguration as the CIA.



During his tenure, Donovan oversaw a chaotic cast of some ten thousand agents drawn from the most conservative financial scions to the country's most idealistic New Deal true believers. Together they usurped the roles of government agencies both foreign and domestic, concocted unbelievably complicated conspiracies, and fought the good fight against the Axis powers of Germany and Japan.



Colorful personalities and truly priceless anecdotes abound in what may arguably be called the most authoritative work on the subject.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"The best book about America's first modern secret service. .. Smith, combining the style of a journalist with the scholarly approach of the political scientist, has provided an excellent overview of the role of OSS during the two-front war against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. .. Tracing the names, the half-submerged links between the intelligence community and what Richard Rovere has called the American Establishment, is what makes Smith's book so fascinating and valuable."—Washington Post Book World

"Smith's absorbing book is really an introduction to what the OSS and its crew of generally exceptionally able and imaginative employees was all about."—Foreign Service Journal

"He describes how the OSS figured in, and was related to, the whole diplomatic and military history of the war."—Annals

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173539823
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	10/08/2019
Edition description:	Unabridged
Sales rank:	813,974

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