{"product_id":"oss-9781493042173","title":"OSS","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe best book about America's first modern secret service.--Washington Post Book WorldIn 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 stage 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 believ\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOSS: America's First Central Intelligence Agency  CONTENTS  \t\tPreface\txi \t1\tDonovan's Dreamers\t1 \t2\tThe Torch of Reaction\t36 \t3\tMediterranean Interlude\t68 \t4\tItalian Sunset\t83 \t5\tOf Communists and Kings\t123 \t6\t\"Contre Nous de la Tyrannie\"\t163 \t7\tHerrengasse 23\t204 \t8\tThe Chinese Puzzle\t242 \t9\t\"Save England's Asiatic Colonies\"\t286 \t10\tMission to Indochina\t320 \t11\tOSS and CIA: The Espionage Gap\t361 \t12\tNotes\t387 \t\tBibliography\t421 \t\tIndex up0\t437","brand":"Rowman \u0026 Littlefield","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51040574472535,"sku":"9781493042173","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781493042173.jpg?v=1750947160","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/oss-9781493042173","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}