Alcorn, Robert
Hayden.
1. No Bugles for Spies: Tales of the OSS. New York: David McKay, 1962. London: Jarrolds, 1963.
Constantinides: Alcorn served in staff positions in both COI and OSS, and was "special funds officer" in London. "It is in the section of the book in which he discusses the importance of finances for operations and the security problems involved in the acquisition of foreign currencies to be used operationally that Alcorn has the most to contribute.... Alcorn is most at home telling administrative and support stories."
For Kent, Studies 8.1 (Winter 1964), this "book is a good part fiction and the rest a highly inaccurate reminiscence.... Alcorn's reminiscences of life in [OSS] R&A Branch ... soured this reviewer on the general credibility of the book. Here he and I served [briefly] at the same time, and the discrepancy between our respective memories is all but limitless." However, Alcorn can be "interesting and informative" when he "writes of things he really knew about."
2. No Banners, No Bands: More Tales of the OSS. New York: David McKay, 1965.
3. Spies of the OSS. London: Robert Hale, 1973.
Beal, Richard
B., Jr. "Sifting Through History's Records Brings the OSS Into the
Daylight." Army, Jan. 1996, 14.
The focus here is on the OSS' intelligence gathering activities.
Bowman, Martin
W. The Bedford Triangle: U.S. Undercover Operations from England in World
War 2. Chatham, Kent, UK: Patrick Stevens, 1988.
To Knouse, http://home.att.net, this book "has a number of glaring faults. For one thing, the chapters on Glenn Miller are entirely superfluous and speculative, not good history at all but more a bit of rumor-mongering than anything else."
Breaks, Katherine.
"Ladies of the OSS: The Apron Strings of Intelligence in World War
II." American Intelligence Journal 13, no. 3 (Summer 1992):
91-96.
Although this is a heavily edited (that is, shortened) version of the author's Senior Essay in the History Department, Yale University, it is an excellent introduction to the contribution made by women to the work of OSS. The author concludes: "The role of women in OSS was limited. OSS worked within the gender constraints of the period, hiring most women for gender-specific work and eschewing a leading role in promoting women with skills. But OSS was not regressive either, giving outstanding candidates meaningful work in Research and Analysis and Morale Operations. The work of the women in OSS was a mixed bag, not a treasure trove of opportunity but nevertheless provided one of the few ways women could play a direct role in World War II."
Breuer, William
B. War and American Women: Heroism, Deeds, and Controversy. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997.
The focus of this work is not on women in intelligence, but rather concerns American women in military service. Nevertheless, Smith, WIR 16.1, notes that Breuer's "stories about women in the OSS and their adventures in France and Switzerland prior to D-Day ... are well told and exciting."
Brown, Anthony
Cave, ed. The Secret War Report of the OSS. New York: Berkley, 1976. [pb]
According to Pforzheimer, this is an edited version of the full two-volume report. This version eliminates and rearranges some of the material; in particular, "the material on OSS in the Far East is not included in the [Brown] version." Constantinides finds that Brown's commentaries "add to the understanding of a number of events and identify a number of individuals involved." At the same time, there are "errors and controversial statements in these commentaries."
See U.S. War Department, Strategic Services Unit, War Report..., prepared under the direction of Kermit Roosevelt in 1948 and declassified by the CIA in 1976.
Chalou, George C., ed. The Secrets War: The Office of Strategic Services in World War II. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992. Second printing, 2002.
Surveillant 2.5 notes that this volume contains the proceedings of a 11-12 July 1991 conference at the National Archives; it includes 24 papers. Included are papers by Robin Winks, Barry Katz, Walt Rostow, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Helene Deschamps-Adams, Max Corso, Timothy Naftali, M.R.D. Foot, and William Colby.
Charlesworth, Lorie, and Michael Salter. "Ensuring the After-Life of the Ciano Diaries: Allen Dulles' Provision of Nuremberg Trial Evidence." Intelligence and National Security 21, no. 4 (Aug. 2006): 568-603.
This is an interesting article about Dulles' efforts to retrieve a copy of the diaries of Count Ciano, Mussolini's foreign minister 1936-1943, from Ciano's wife and the use of the diaries at the Nuremberg trial of Hitler's foreign minister, Joachim von Ribbentrop.
Clauseen, Martin P., ed. The OSS-NKVD Relationship, 1943-1945. Vol. 8 of Covert Warfare series. New York: Garland, 1989.
http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usamhi/Bibliographies: 133 reprinted documents, including correspondence between W.J. Donovan and John R. Deane.
Cline, Ray S.
"OSS: The History of an Idea." Manuscript from the National Archives,
Military Projects Branch, 7 Sep. 1945.
Cryptologia.
Editors. "OSS Cryptographic Plan." 13, no. 3 (Jul. 1989): 283-287.
Petersen: "1945 U.S. Army staff study obtained under FOIA."
Dear, Ian. Sabotage and Subversion: Stories from the Files of the SOE and OSS. London: Arms and Armour, 1996.
Shryock, IJI&C 12.2, notes that the book is more weighted toward SOE's activities than OSS' and more toward Europe than elsewhere. The book is only a "modest" success. Although the author "provides an abundance of stories of high adventure in hostile territory," the book suffers from organization problems. Basically, "[t]here is a confusing lack of causal and chronological order" within the book and within its individual chapters. Dear writes in a "rambling style," with "irrelevant detail" and "dull statistics."
Dunlop, Richard. "The Wartime OSS." American Legion Magazine 116, no. 6
(1984): 15. [Petersen]
Finnegan, John
P. Military Intelligence: A Picture History. Arlington, VA: History Office, U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command, 1985. 2d. ed. Washington, DC: GPO, 1992.
Petersen says that Finnegan's work "contains valuable narrative description of military intelligence developments." To Sexton, the work is a "balanced overview." [Pages 26-32 cover OSS operations; pp. 116-127 are devoted to the Korean War.] FILS 12.4 calls the book a "valuable introductory study of the subject."
Ford, Corey, and Alastair MacBain. Cloak and Dagger: The Secret Story of the OSS. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1945. New York: Random House, 1946.
Kent, Studies 17.1 (Spring 1973), comments that this book "contains scarcely a paragraph without some dismal error of omission or commisssion."
Fraser-Smith,
Charles. Secret Warriors: Hidden Heroes of MI6, OSS, MI9, SOE & SAS.
Exeter, UK: Paternoster, 1984. [Petersen]
Funk, Arthur Layton. "American Contacts with the Resistance in France, 1940-1943." Military Affairs 34, no. 1 (Feb. 1970).
Funk, Arthur Layton. "The OSS in Algiers." In The Secrets War: The Office of Strategic Services in World War II, ed. George C. Chalou. Washington, DC: National Archives, 1992.
Hogan, David
W., Jr. U.S. Army Special Operations in World War II. CMH Publication
70-42. Washington, DC: Department of the Army, 1992
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Introduction
Chapter 2. Special Operations in the Mediterranean
... The Office of Strategic Services in the Mediterranean
Chapter 3. Special Operations in the European Theater
... The Jedburghs and Operational Groups in France
Chapter 5. Special Operations in the China-Burma-India Theater
OSS Detachment 101...
The Office of Strategic Services in China
The Office of Strategic Services in Southeast Asia
Chapter 6. Conclusion
Hymoff, Edward.
The OSS in World War II. New York: Ballantine, 1972. New York: Richardson
& Steirman, 1986.
Return to OSS Table of Contents