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A $rief Review of
OSS. Literature
George C. Constantinides
This article is based on an address given at an OSS
symposium held at the National Archives in July
/991.
Shonly after World War II, former Secretary of State
James Byrnes observed from long experience that a
governmem agency was the closest thing to immonal
life on this eanh. On the face of it, this seemed an
odd and inappropriate comment to make when many a
temporary US agency, including OSS, had been or
was in the process of being dismantled. And yet, stu
dents of intelligence history detect some truth in
Byrnes's remark in view of the spiritual durability of
OSS. They and those who have followed develop-
ments in our postwar national security organization
agree that, as one writer put it. OSS was the direct
lineal ancestor of CIA. It is this genetic connection
with today's intelligence which, more than anything
else, explains continued interest in OSS itself a'> an
organization. Accounts of individual or group
derring-do and operational accomplishments probably
will continue to attract and fascinate the general pub-
lic. The' professed adventures of Countess Romanones
in The Spy Wore Red are a recent example. But their
secondary contribution to keeping interest in OSS
alive will inevitably diminish with the passage of
time.
There is one school of which has not recon-
ciled itself entirely to the transfer of OSS intelligence
philosophy and concepts, especially of coven action,
into the postwar era. As a result, it has played a role
in perpe'tuating attention to OSS. The scholar who
reveled in the belief that Henry had finally
managed to get rid of William Donovan's "one
hundred. professors" in 1973 is representative of this
group. As he saw it. these undesirable leftovers were
removed when William Colby replaced the Office of
National Estimates. Another academic was even more
passionate in 1990, when he wrote:
I
73
II-
"Harry Truman had killed the OSS in 1945 but
failed to drive a wooden stake through its hean;
it rose again as the CIA."'
Finally. interest in OSS has benefited from the recent
explosion of curiosity about intelligence subjects in
general. This has resulted in a steady flow of litera-
ture long after the end of the shon life of the OSS not
accounted for by its overall contribution to Allied vic-
tory. Though some may disagree. most will accept
Barry Katz's judgment expressed in his Foreign
Intelligence: that the organization "in general exer-
cised little influence on the actual conduct of the

By my count. 62 English-language works of non
fiction on OSS have been published as of June 1991.
These books fit my definition of those devoted exclu-
sively or substantively to the subject. Excluded by my
criteria, for instance, are the autobiography of William
Langer and the biography of William Casey. Both
were disappointing to those looking for material of
their OSS days. The books I include divide con-
veniently for a reviewer into two periods. The first,
up to 1970, witnessed the appearance of 23. si x of
which were published between 1945 and 1947. All
but two were authored or coauthored by OSS veterans
or persons with some OSS connection. The exceptions
were Klein's The Counterfeit Traitor, the story of Eric
Erickson, whom William Casey in his history called
the most valuable OSS agent in Stockholm, and
Anderson's The Dark City.
A slight majority of the books of this period was
comprised of personal accounts by veterans of war-
time experiences. The remainder was largely collec-
tions of anecdotes of OSS operations. General
Donovan. who wanted some of the OSS saga told,
reponedly encouraged both types. The declassification
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of some records before the termination of OSS
provided material for the collections of such opera-
tional vignettes as Ford and McBain's Cloak and
Dagger and Alsop and Braden's Sub Rosa. Much of
the literature of this era is of an embryonic quality
and some, like Louis Huot's Guns For Tiro, with its
obvious gaps and political dyslexia, of indifferent
quality or historical value. On the other hand. Allen
Dulles's. The Secret Surrender is at the opposite end
of the quality spectrum. So, too, is Behind the BurmtJ
Road by Peers and Brellis. which, like Dulles's, is a
firsthand account of important events.
Literature of Discontent
The first of the books by former OSS members criti-
cal of some aspect of the organization appeared dur-
ing this period. I term such the literature of discon-
tent, though they were in content much more than
that. The Scarlet Thread, by Donald Downes, and A
Spy in Rome, by Peter Tompkins, were the initial two
of this category. They differ from later critical studies
by nonaffiliated authors in that they are not attacks
against the institution or intelligence activities per se;
rather. they express disagreement or personal unhappi-
ness with some policy or portion, panicularly with
some of the management. Tompkins fumed against the
"Johnny-come-latelys," official views, and the "halo-
American Mafiosi" in OSS. Downes directed his
barbs at what he called the "amateurs," "cast-offs"
and "stupid sons of the rich and famous" in the or-
ganization. The literary wit and worldly disdain of a
Malcolm Muggeridge are not their only weapons of
choice. All the same, they served to balance some-
what the largely favorable portrait of OSS projected
by most writers during that time.
Five others merit singling out for various reasons.
Aldo lcardi's American Master Spy is in a category of
its own. The author's main motive in writing it was to
give his version of the Holohan murder case in Italy,
which became a cause celebre. Thus far, it is the only
book which deals with it as a central subject, albeit
ex parte. Elizabeth MacDonald's Undercover Girl had
a number of firsts which distinguish it, including the
relevation of the work of Allied black radios. It also
made a pioneering protest against male attitudes
toward women in substantive war duties. Into Siam,
by Nicol Smith and Blake Clark, describes at first
055 Literature
hand an operation unique in its conditions and in the
exalted level of its principal sources. Stanley Lovell's
references to truth durgs in Of Spies and Stratemens
later set off intense public concerns. Roger Hall's
You're Stepp n ~ on My Cloak and DaJ.:J!ef is the one
humorous and light treatment done to date. to the best
of my knowledge. It had at least 13 printings by
1957. and it is still amusing.
A Pivotal Decade
The 1970s represent a watershed. That decade wit-
nessed the start of works with a wider perspective and
more comprehensive treatment, and. in some in-
stances, with a different thrust. At the same time, the
output of personal accounts by OSS veterans con-
. tinued, and these were still a majority. It was a vet
eran, Edward Hymoff, nevertheless, who was one of
the first to express an adverse opinion in writing
about the literature's trend to that point. In his The
~ S in World War II, he dismissed the greater part of
what had been written on the subject as of liule con-
sequence.
Hymoff' s effort. comprised mainly of old or addi-
tional anecdotes. did not rectify the situation. New en-
trants who began to take an imerest in the subject in-
cluded professional writers. academics. and scholars.
The opportunity to exploit available new sources
stimulated their interest. These sources were the
declassified portions of the OSS archives, access
provided by the Freedom of Information Act. and the
newly released in-house history of OSS.
There also was a more relaxed access to personal
journals and recollections of some principal figures in
the organization. Former CIA analyst R. Harris Smith
showed how such material could be tapped. His OSS.
written in 1972, before the release of OSS archives. is
a transitional work. It is wider in scope and has a
different focus. Backstage maneuvering and
bureaucratic wrangling occupy much of Smith's story.
as do operational faux pas and failures. He also draws
some large lessons, including the belief that many
Cold War developments were traceable ultimately to
Donovan.
This was the epoch when American intelligence. espe-
cially its postwar covert action activities, was under
auack. Bradley Smith was one whose views suited
74
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OSS Literature
this climate, and he took maximum advantage of the
new sources of information. In two books, one of
which, Operation Sunrise, he co-authored, he made
clear his dislike of covert actions, "secret shenani-
gans, " and links them historically to OSS. He goes
further in The Shadow Warriors. a probing, disputed,
wideranging work. In it, he tries to evaluate the effec-
tiveness of OSS, and he raises a number of provoca-
tive questions concerning the rationale for its adoption
of covert actions. Arguably, he goes beyond anything
intended by earlier critics or by Archimedes Patti in
Why Vietnam? or by Max Corvo in The OSS in Italy.
While both these authors cite various dysfunctions,
Pani stresses policy errors. Neither questions the basic
premises of OSS.
A Mixed Bag
To keep maners in perspective, books critical of OSS
to any degree were still a minority. Laudatory or non-
controversial ones by OSS veterans continued to
appear-and at twice the rate of the first period. The
one that stands apan is An Unamerican lAdy, by Jane
Foster, who was indicted as a Soviet agent and com-
munist. Evasive and unconvincing, it warrants men-
tion only because of special and negative reasons. A
handful represents notable exceptions to the personal
histories of narrow scope. WiJiiam Casey and James
G. Rogers left us accounts of Headquaners and of
operations from the broader perspective of senior po-
sitions. Rogers's journal gives us an indication of
what richness remains to be tapped in personal
papers; it is also a fascinating peek into a segment of
Washington's wanime social power saucture. On the
other hand, David Bruce's diary, published under the
title OSS Against the Reich, is excessively discreet on
matters of substance.
Non-veterans made no small contribution to the bener
literature. Of the four books about Donovan, the two
by veterans (Corey Ford's Donovan of OSS and
Richard Dunlop' s Donovan) are largely panegyrics.
Anthony Cave Brown's The Last Hero, though
flawed, was an improvement. Based on the general's
private papers, it contained new or clarifying material.
Thomas Troy's Donovan and the CIA is the most
75
scholarly. Its official sponsorship signaled the author's
use of unrivaled archival material to probe a panicular
subject on which he concentrated.
Others worthy of note include Robin Winks's Cloak
and Gown. Some grumbled that it leaves the impres-
sion that Yale won the intelligence war. but it broke
new ground in examining the links between academia
and US intelligence. Its profile of James Angleton is
the most carefully crafted up to that time, and it con-
tains, along with R. Harris Smith, one of the best bib-
liographies on OSS. Barry Katz's o ~ i g n
Intelligence, published in 1989, was the first full-
length study devoted to the Research and Analysis
(R&A) Branch. It is one of six books on OSS pub-
lished by a university press. Joseph Persico's Piercing
the Reich greatly expanded on the linle that had a ~
peared about intelligence operations into the Reich it-
self. Its preface contains a good resumi of the new
source material that Persico mined.
Official Histories
One cannot reexamine the literature of the last 20
years without arriving at a new appreciation of the
official histories of OSS released in 1976. The only
precedence for the release of secrets of an intelligence
organization had been the British government's his-
tory of SOE in France. For researchers, these histories
provide infonnation and facts, as well as leads into
new areas of inquiry.
Persico credits the histories for providing the incen-
tive for his book on operations into Germany. To il-
lustrate the point further, take the mention made of
the Special Counterintelligence Units (SCisf of X-2.
1be full story of their fascinating work waits to be
told. Only Akeley Quirk, in his short memoirs pub-
lished in 1981, has written a firsthand account of ex-
periences with such a unit. A young intelligence scho-
lar, Timothy Naftah, is writing a history of X-2 and
SCI.
Future Research
There are other areas for further research and for writ-
ing that probably will be of general or specialist in-
terest. R&A deserves more than a single study. in
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. .
view of its pioneering work in the war and its in-
fluence on postwar research methodology in academia
and in intelligence. Katz is astonished that historians
have completely overlooked R&A. Nor has the exact
contribution of OSS to Allied knowledge of German
nuclear plans and intentions been fully explored.
There is only passing mention of this subject in the
OSS operational' history. while the 1974 biography of
Moe Berg by a trio of authors makes claims that
await verification. Even William Casey's more
authorative chapter on the matter seems to need up-
dating and possible revision in light of newer infor-
mation.
Winks's opinion that a major book is needed about
the work of ass with the Italian resistance is on the
mark. One can also argue that Donovan's years with
the Coordinator of Information and OSS have not
been exhaustively treated, because Troy's authoritative
work is not concerned with operational management.
If Persico is correct that the Labor Branch was virtu-
ally the only source of US intelligence on conditions
in Germany until 1944, this would point to it as a
productive area for research.
Finally, there is the need to verify some of the ac-
counts of accomplishments found in anecdotal collec-
tions and personal histories, or in combinations, such
as those of Robert Alcorn. Although of secondary pri-
ority, one has to remember that we are still sorting out
claims and myths in works about previous wars. Civil
War intelligence is a good case in point. That poten-
tially conflicting claims can be expected to crop up is
anested to by the contents of a recent book;
2
General
Slowikowski, who headed Polish intelligence in North
Africa in 1942, has written that he f o ~ r d e d
voluminous intelligence produced by his extensive
network to London via the American pouch. He
"presumes" the -:\mericans in Africa read his net's in-
telligence. He also charges that certain unidentified
US officials deliberately distorted history by attribut-
ing all Allied intelligence operations in French North
Africa to themselves. He thus raises serious questions
concerning the exact credit for information on which
estimates and plans for the North African invasion
were based. Because that invasion is regarded as the
first major success of ass. here is another matter
worthy of a talented researcher.
OSS Lirera.ture
NOTES
I. Ameringer, Charles D. U.S. Foreign Intelligence:
The Secret Side of American History. Lexington
Books, I 990.
2. In the Secret Service. London: The Windrus Press,
1988.
Published Books on OSS
1940s
Ford, Corey and Alastair MacBain. Cloak and
Dagger. Grosset and Dunlap, 1945.
Huot, Louis. Guns for Trto. L.B. Fischer, 1945.
Smith, Nicol and Blake Clark. Into Siam.
Bobbs-Merrill, 1945.
Alsop, Stewart and Thomas Braden. Sub Rosa.
Harcourt, Brace and World, 1946.
Legendre, Gertrude. The Sands Ceased to Run.
William Frederick Press, 1947.
MacDonald, Elizabeth. Undercover Girl. Macmillan,
1947.
Gardner, John et al. Assessment of Men. Reinhart,
1948.
1950s
Downes. Donald. The Scarlet Thread. British Book
Center, 1953.
Andersen, Hartvig. The Dark City. Reinhart, 1954.
lcardi, Aldo. American Master Spy. Stalwart
Enterprises, 1954.
Morgan, William. Spies and Saboteurs. Gollancz,
1955.
Hall, Roger. You're Stepping On My Cloak and
Dagger. W.W. Norton, 1957.
Morgan, William. The OSS and I. W.W. Nortori. 1957.
Klein, A. The Counterfeit Traitor, Henry Holt, 1958.
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OSS Literature
1960s .
Tompkins, Peter. A Spy in Rome. Simon and Schuster,
1962.
Alcorn, Roben. No Bugles for Spies. David McKay,
1962.
Barren. Neil H. Chinghpaw. Vantage Press, I 962.
Lovell, Stanley. Of Spies and Strategems. Prentice
Hall, 1963.
Peers. William and Dean Brelis. Behind the Burma
Road: Little Brown, 1963.
Alcorn, Roben. No Banners, No Bands. David
McKay, 1965.
Dulles, Allen. The Sur"nder. Harper and Row,
1966.
Frillmann, Paul and Graham Peck. China: The
Life. Houghton, Mifflin, 1968.
Duke, Aorimond. Name, Rank. and Serial Number.
Meredith Press, 1969.
1970s
Ford, Corey. Donovan of OSS. Little, Brown, 1970.
Booth, Waller. Mission Marcel Proust. Dorrence &:
Co. , 1972.
Caldwell. Oliver. A Secret War. Southern Illinois
Univ. Press, 1972.
Hymoff, Edward. 'I'M OSS in World War Two.
Ballantine, 1972.
Smith R. Harris. OSS. Univ. of California Press, 1972.
Dreux, W. No Bridges Blown. Univ. of Notre Dame
Press, 1973.
Kaufman, Louis; Barbara Fitzgerald and Tom Sewell.
Moe Berg. Linle, Brown, 1974.
77
Moon, Thomas and Carl Eifler. The Deadliest
Colonel. Vantage Press, 1975.
Normount Technical Publications. OSS Special
Weapons. Devices and Equipment, 1975.
Brown, Anthony Cave. The Secrt't War Report nf the
OSS. Berkley, 1976.
US yrar Dept., SSU Unit. War Report of the OSS.
Vol. I. Walker & Co., 1976.
US War Dept., SSU Unit. War Report of the OSS.
Vol. D. Walker & Co., 1976.
Dunlop. Richard. Behind Japanese Lines with the OSS
in Burma. Rand McNally, 1979.
Persico, Joseph. Piercing the Reich. Viking, 1979.
Smith, Bradley and Elena Agarossi. Operation
Sunrise. Basic Books, 1979.
1980s
Coon, Carleton. North Africa Story. Gambit, 1980.
DeCharnplain, Helene. The Sec"t War of Helene
DeChamplain. W. H. Allen, 1980.
Foster, Jane. An Unamerican LAdy. Sidgwick and
Jackson, 1980.
Pani. Archimides. Why VietMm? Univ. of California
Press, 1980.
Troy, Thomas. Donovan and the CIA. Central
Intelligence Agency, 1980.
Quirk, Akeley. Recollections of WW II. OSS SCI Unit
6th Army Group, 1981 .
Brown, Anthony Cave. Wild Bill Donovan. Times
Books, 1982.
Dunlop, Richard. Donovan: Americas Master Spy.
Rand McNally, 1982.
Bancroft. Mary. Autobiography of a Spy. William
Morrow, 1983.
. .
Cassidy, William (Ed). History of the Schools and
Training Office of the Strategic Services.
Kingfisher, 1983.
Smith, Bradley. The Shadow Warriors. Basic Books,
1983.
Aline, Countess of Ron:tanones. The Spy Wore Red.
Random House,
1
1987.
I
Rogers, James G. Wartime Washington (Ed. By
1
Thomas Troy) Univ. Publications of America, 1987.
.
Winks. Robin. Cloalc and Gown. Morrow, 1987.
Casey, William. :The Secret War Against Hitler.
Regnery Gateway, 1988.
Ladd, J. and H.K. Mellon. Clandestine Waifare.
Weapons and Equipment of the SO and OSS.
Blanford Press, 1988.
Katz, Barry. FoTtfign Intelligence. Harvard, 1989.
OSS Literature
1990s
Brunner, John. The OSS Crossbows. Phillips
Publications, 1990.
Corvo, Max. The OSS in Italy 1942-1945.
1990.
Hilsman, Roger. American Guerrilla. Brassey's (U.S.)
1990.
Lankford. Nelson D. OSS Against the Reich. Kent
State, 1991 .
Mellon, H. Keith. OSS Special Weapons and
Equipment. Sterling, 1991.
Moon, Tom. This Grim and Savage Game. Burning
Gate Press. 1991.
Quigley, Martin S. Peace Without Hiroshima.
Madison Books, 1991.
The writer wishes to acknowledge the valuable as-
sistance of Hayden Peake and Walter Pfonheimer in
compiling this list.
78