[1][1]It is interesting and, perhaps, curious that there has not been a thorough and scholarly biography of William J. Donovan (1883-1959). As a decorated hero (Medal of Honor) in World War I, influential Wall Street lawyer, and the "father of American intelligence" as the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in World War II, Donovan seems to be a much more interesting and significant individual than many who have received fuller treatment.
Two of the better known popular biographies of Donovan -- Anthony Cave Brown's The Last Hero and Richard Dunlop's Donovan, America's Master Spy -- are so lightly regarded by Walter Pforzheimer that they are noted only in passing as having "such shortcomings" that they were not included in his Bibliography of Intelligence Literature, 8th ed. (1985).
Corey Ford's Donovan of OSS is readable and not dramatically inaccurate as far as it goes. However, too much information on the period has become available since the book was published in 1970 for it to be more than a light read for anyone interested in Donovan and his place in American intelligence history.
Thomas Troy's Donovan and the CIA has an institutional focus that precludes it being regarded as a true "biography" of Donovan. It does contain excellent documentation for linking Donovan directly to the institutionalization of intelligence in this country. Similarly, Troy's later work Wild Bill and Intrepid is something more and less than a biography of Donovan. Nonetheless, Troy's works are indispensable to trying to understand Donovan's role at this juncture of history.
The books mentioned are listed below. Articles both by and on Donovan are in a separate file. The interested reader should also touch base with the major works which focus more broadly on OSS activities in World War II.
Brown, Anthony
Cave. The Last Hero: Wild Bill Donovan. New York: Times Books, 1982.
Powers, Intelligence Wars (2004), 12-13, and NYRB, 12 May 1983, calls The Last Hero "a huge archive, somewhat haphazardly organized, of detailed cases from all the usual sources plus Donovan's own voluminous files, to which Brown was given exclusive access."
According to Petersen, The Last Hero "is the most comprehensive treatment of the OSS Director, and draws upon his personal papers. It should be used with care."
Pforzheimer believed that the book had "such shortcomings" that he did not include it in his bibliography.
Commenting on Thomas F. Troy's Wild Bill and Intrepid, Ward Warren in CIRA Newsletter 21.2 says of The Last Hero that "nothing but the title is reliable."
Dunlop, Richard.
Donovan, America's Master Spy. Chicago: Rand McNally, 1982.
Pforzheimer says that this work has "such shortcomings" that it is not included in Bibliography of Intelligence Literature. Wilcox calls it an "[e]xtensive sympathetic biography."
For Powers, Intelligence Wars (2004), p. 12, and NYRB, 12 May 1983, the author "provides the best account of Donovan's life before the OSS. Unfortunately, his footnotes are ... laborious to consult, and he attributes many statements to Donovan without making it clear when he stated them, or to whom."
Ford, Corey.
Donovan of OSS. Boston: Little, Brown, 1970.
Pforzheimer says that this book is "both a biography ... and a history of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)." It is based "in part on some of Donovan's ... private papers.... However, many sources were not exploited."
For Troy, "Writing History...," IJI&C 7.4, this is "more a tribute to an idol than a history"; it is "based only on open sources."
Constantinides adds that "Ford's admiration for his subject dulled his critical capacities and led to an incomplete portrayal of the man."
Lowenthal thinks Ford overemphasizes OSS' "operational aspects and their effects on World War II."
Troy,
Thomas F. Donovan and the CIA: A History of the Establishment of the
Central Intelligence Agency. Washington, DC: CIA, 1981. Frederick, MD:
University Publications of America, 1981.
Pforzheimer finds that the "documentation for this book has been brilliantly researched.... The excellent writing makes it essential reading" for intelligence professionals and scholars alike.
For Constantinides, Troy's work meets "high standards of scholarship." The author's research is "enormous and painstaking," and his sources are "carefully documented." He could have made the work "even better by describing the world environment within which the main debates and bureaucratic battles took place."
Powers, Intelligence Wars (2004), p. 12, and NYRB, 12 May 1983, calls Donovan and the CIA "a plodding insitutional history." He, then, hastens to add that the author "is an intelligent writer, and his book unveils much about territorial wars between bureaucracies."
Troy tells the story of how the CIA bureaucracy handled his biography of Donovan -- written on Agency time and with OTR support -- in "Writing History in CIA: A Memoir of Frustration," International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 7.4 (Winter 1994): 397-411.
Troy, Thomas
F. Wild Bill and Intrepid: Bill Donovan, Bill Stephenson, and the Origin
of CIA. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996.
Warren, CIRA Newsletter 21.2, says that Troy "has destroyed some of the most cherished myths of the intelligence community and replaced them with solid facts and speculation so firmly based that it might as well be fact." It is the relationship between the CIA's father, Donovan, and its Godfather, Stephenson, that Troy has sought to explicate. He "has produced a detailed and fascinating account of two remarkable men and the process by which they established the foundation" for the CIA. "Unfortunately, by concentrating on the process and the details Troy produces little about the personality and character of his two main actors." Of course, doing so was not his goal.
For Morley, WPNWE, 29 Jul.-4 Aug. 1996, Troy's "useful study" demonstrates "in scholastic detail that Donovan was actually working in 1940-41 with senior eminences in the British Secret Intelligence Services.... The CIA, in other words, was not the brainchild of a lone bureaucratic gunslinger but the offspring of an Anglo-American liaison."
Friedman, Parameters, Summer 1997, comments that "[w]idely believed tales surrounding the founding of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) by 'Wild Bill' Donovan and the role of Sir William 'Little Bill' Stephenson ... often turn out to be about as accurate as Parson Weems' fable about George Washington and the cherry tree. Troy sets these myths straight in his well-documented work." Similarly, Immerman, Choice 34.2, finds Troy's arguments "persuasive"; his work will necessitate some minor qualification of the "standard characterization of US intelligence as distinctly American."
For Crane, http://www.cdsar.af.mil/bookrev/troy.html, Wild Bill and Intrepid is an "outstanding, thoroughly researched account of the origins ... of the Office of Coordinator of Information (COI) and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)." This book "is truly an intelligence treasure"; it is "[r]ich in information about World War II, declassified documents, and charismatic personalities." Kimble, Military Review, May 1998, comments that "[t]he book's endnotes are an excellent source of information for further research."
On the other hand, Hoffman, WIR 15.5, believes that Troy has "stretched [his material] precariously thin." The author's thesis is that Stephenson should be credited with assisting in "the conception and establishment of COI" (Coordinator of Information), but his "presentation of the evidence ... is rather confusing." Warner, JAH 83.4, also sounds a cautionary note: "Despite Troy's impressive research and analysis,... this case cannot yet be closed. We do not know whether the president ever heard Stephenson's advice."
Wilhelm, Maria. The Fighting Irishman. New York: Hawthorne, 1964.
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