WORLD WAR II

OSS

Operations in/against Other Countries

Bartholomew-Feis, Dixee R. The OSS and Ho Chi Minh: Unexpected Allies in the War Against Japan. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas, 2006.

According to Peake, Studies 50.4 (2006) and Intelligencer 15.2 (Fall/Winter 2006-2007), this "is the first book devoted" to the OSS-Ho wartime relationship. "The mission of the OSS team, designated Deer, was to work with the Vietnamese and conduct sabotage, intelligence collection, and morale operations against the Japanese in Indochina. While it might be expected that with the end of the war in view cooperation from all anti-Japanese participants in the region would have been smooth and effective, Professor Bartholomew-Feis leaves no doubt whatever that the reality was otherwise."

Goulden, Intelligencer 15.2 (Fall/Winter 2006-2007), finds that the author has "skillfully mined OSS records in the National Archives." Bartholomew-Feis' "story is well told in a thoroughly researched, tautly written account."

For Brown, I&NS 22.6 (Dec. 2007), the author "masterfully examines the fateful relationship" between the OSS and "the embryonic Viet Minh insurgent movement." This is "an engaging and valuable book."

Booth, Waller B.

1. Mission Marcel-Proust: The Story of an Unusual OSS Undertaking. Philadelphia: Dorrance, 1972.

2. "War by 'Other Means.'" Army 25, no. 1 (1975): 21-24.

Petersen: "COI/OSS operations in Spain."

Burke, Michael. Outrageous Good Fortune. Boston: Little, Brown, 1984.

Burke served in OSS in World War II and later was part of the CIA's covert operation against Albania in the early 1950s. His OSS adventures were made into a movie, "Cloak and Dagger," with Gary Cooper playing Burke. In later life, Burke was president and chairman of the board of the New York Yankees. O'Toole, Encyclopedia, pp. 84 85.

Clemens, Peter. "Operation 'Cardinal': The OSS in Manchuria, August 1945." Intelligence and National Security 13, no. 4 (Winter 1998): 71-106.

The author details an OSS operation that began as a mission to protect Allied prisoners of war in Manchuria, and moved into intelligence gathering following the success of their primary objective. The "Cardinal" team was kicked out of Mukden on 6 October 1945.

Colby, William E. "OSS Operations in Norway: Skis and Daggers." Studies in Intelligence (Winter 1999-2000): 53-60; CIRA Newsletter 25, no. 2 (Summer 2000): 38-45.

In this fragment found in "some old CIA files," Colby relates his personal experiences with "Operation Rype" of the Norwegian Special Operations Group, OSS, "the first and only combined ski-parachute operation ever mounted by the US Army."

Coon, Carleton S. North Africa Story: An Anthropologist as OSS Agent, 1941-1943. Ipswich, MA: Gambit,1980.

Chambers feels that Coon "manages to get a handle on the harsher aspects of OSS in the field that others have avoided."

Constantinides notes that the work "discusses the wide range of activities Coon had to perform and shows U.S. intelligence in the early stage of learning its craft."

Corvo, Max. The OSS in Italy 1942-1945: A Personal Memoir. New York: Praeger, 1990.

Surveillant 1.1 comments that Corvo, who was "chief of OSS operations in Italy during the Italian campaign, details the work of the Italian Secret Intelligence Section, its relationship to other parts of the Intelligence Community, and the impact of its operations on postwar US-Italian relations." He reveals "several operations that have not been discussed publicly before."

According to Ugino, MI 19.2, the book is an "'upclose and personal' look at how operations were planned and carried out.... Using first-generation Italian-Americans and Italian exiles, OSS built Italian SI into a first class intelligence gathering tool.... Corvo effectively draws a picture of the turf battle that emerged after World War II that would eventually give birth to the CIA.... The only criticism of Corvo's book is the lack of a concluding chapter to tie together lessons learned."

MacPherson, I&NS 6.3, calls this a "detailed, if sometimes myopic, narrative of the intelligence war in the Italian theatre." Although it is "lacking in analytical perspective," Corvo has made "a useful addition to the existing histories of the OSS and wartime Allied intelligence."

Downes, Donald. The Scarlet Thread: Adventures in Wartime Espionage. London: Derek Vershoyle, 1953. New York: British Book Centre, 1953.

Constantinides: This is the "personal reminiscence of an American who ... served in British intelligence before Pearl Harbor." During the war, Downes served with the OSS in North Africa and Italy, and was connected with an ill-fated OSS intelligence-collection operation in Spain. "Downes's account is partisan and cannot be relied on completely for accuracy."

Downs, Jim. "Lessons From the Failure of the OSS/SOE DAWES Mission." Journal of Intelligence History 2, no. 1 (Summer 2002). [http://www.intelligence-history.org/jih/ previous.html]

Downs, Jim. World War II: OSS Tragedy in Slovakia. Oceanside, CA: Liefrinck, 2002.

According to Jonkers, AFIO WIN 48-02, 17 Dec. 2002, this work "tells the story of an OSS unit supporting local partisans, some two dozen American and British agents, and two women, whose mission in Slovakia ran afoul of German counterintelligence in 1944. Pursued by an 'Abwehr' unit through rugged terrain in frigid weather, most lost their lives.... The story is set in a complicated mosaic of personalities of all nationalities, in obscure towns and villages, and may be a challenge to follow for some."

Duke, Florimond, with Charles M. Swaart. Name, Rank and Serial Number. New York: Meredith Press, 1969.

Constantinides: This is the story of the ill-fated Mission Sparrow in which Duke and two other OSS officers parachuted into Hungary in March 1944 to attempt to arrange a Hungarian surrender.

George, Willis. Surreptitious Entry. New York: Appleton-Century, 1946.

Clark comment: Disgruntled second-story man for OSS and ONI tells all.

Constantinides sees the book as "a good handbook on clandestine techniques of entry ... and on surveillance.... George headed the OSS team that made entry into Amerasia's offices."

Giannaris, John ("Yannis"). Yannis. ?: Pilgrimage Press, 1988.

Surveillant 2.2: OSS mission into Greece during World War II.

Heimark, Bruce H. The OSS Norwegian Special Operations Group in World War II. Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood, 1994.

Surveillant 4.1: "Heimark investigates the conduct of unconventional warfare as one of the many OGs [operational groups] parachuted deep behind enemy lines in German occupied countries."

Isaacson, Irving. Memoirs of an American Spy: The Story of the First OSS Spy in the Cold War with the Russians. Cushing, ME: Stones Point Press, 2001.

Berube, NIPQ 18.2/3, says that this is "a readable book, told in a simple, conversational narrative." It offers "a very personal, ground view of the latter days of WWII and the early Cold War." The author's "description of the early OSS iintelligence operations in Eastern Europe is of particular interest because it is lacking in more general books."

Kloman, Erasmus H. Assignment Algiers: With the OSS in the Mediterranean Theater. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2005.

From advertisement: As OSS Acting Chief of Operations in the Mediterranean Theater, the author "helped organize and coordinate the actions of Special Operations (SO) teams that infiltrated Italy and occupied-France.... The author’s account of his experience coupled with his extensive research of declassified documents provides a fascinating inside view of the 'shadow war' within the larger conflagration of World War II."

Peake, Studies 50, no. 1 (Mar. 2006), comments that the author's "narrative is something more than a first-hand account of OSS operations from a staff officer’s perspective." Although Kloman tells of the OSS role supporting French partisans and the Italian resistance, "he also includes the day-to-day difficulties encountered with the often uncooperative British and the persistent confusion within OSS itself -- both of which limited the impact OSS had on the war.... In his perceptive epilogue, Kloman looks back on his wartime OSS service and the influence of the organization on postwar intelligence."

Mark, Eduard. "The OSS in Romania, 1944-45: An Intelligence Operation of the Early Cold War." Intelligence and National Security 9, no. 2 (Apr. 1994): 320-344.

Wisner's "first priority was to establish 'the intentions of the Soviet Union regarding Romania'.... The vaunted 'Bishop traffic' ... consisted of fabrications, ambitious but crude.... The best that can be said of the 'Bishop traffic' is that it met with little acceptance outside of the American legation in Bucharest. Even there its influence should not be exaggerated.... Probably the most immediately [?useful] information from Bucharest was the German order of battle information that Madison and Roberts obtained from Soviet headquarters through a Romanian intermediary.... In sum, OSS Bucharest was an indifferently conducted operation in difficult circumstances, which none the less produced some useful if unspectacular[] information."

Wilber, Donald N. Adventures in the Middle East: Excursions and Incursions. Princeton, NJ: Darwin, 1986.

Haglund, I&NS 4.3, notes Wilber's claim to have both developed the concept for Operation Ajax and played a major role in making that plan operational. Nevertheless, there is "not ... much new information about US intelligence operations in the Middle East, either during the 1950s or during the war, when Wilber was an OSS agent in Iran."

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