Office of Strategic Services 1942-45: The World War II Origins of the CIA

Description

The Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA, was founded in 1942 by William 'Wild Bill' Donovan under the direction of President Roosevelt. Agents were enlisted from both the armed services and civilians to produce operational groups specialising in different foreign areas including Italy, Norway, Yugoslavia and China. In 1944 the number of men and women working in the service totalled nearly 13,500. This intriguing story of the origins and development of the American espionage forces covers all of the different departments involved, with a particular emphasis on the courageous teams operating in the field. The volume is illustrated with many photographs, including images from the film director John Ford who led the OSS Photographic Unit and parachuted into Burma in 1943.

Eugene Liptak holds both a BA in History and a Masters in Library Science from the University of Arizona. His interest in military history comes from reading, movies, collecting military scale models, and visiting museums. This is his first book for Osprey. Richard Hook was born in 1938 and trained at Reigate College of Art. After national service with 1st Bn, Queen's Royal Regiment, he became art editor of the much-praised magazine Finding Out during the 1960s. He has worked as a freelance illustrator ever since, earning an international reputation particularly for his deep knowledge of Native American material culture; and has illustrated more than 50 Osprey titles. Richard is married and lives in Sussex; his three children Adam, Jason, and Christa are all professionally active in various artistic disciplines.

"If it were possible to take the most comprehensive history of the Office of Strategic Services (the 'OSS') and then abstract it so that the most important information was concentrated into a brief sixty-four page volume, you would have a very valuable reference tool. Fortunately, Eugene Liptak, with the help of illustrator Richard Hook, has given us just such a resource in Office of Strategic Services 1942-1945... Hook's illustrations are wonderful and add an additional layer of detail to Liptak's research... Office of Strategic Services 1942-1945: The World War II Origins of the CIA is a great research volume for any library." --David Mitchell, World War II Forums, ww2f.com (January 2010) "Eugene Liptak's Office of Strategic Services provides a review of the US wartime espionage and covert operations agency during the war, following their tactics and the conflicts behind their operations. Rare photos and original artwork lends to the effort." --The Bookwatch (December 2009) "Author Eugene Liptak does a great job of telling the story of this large and quite varied organization, going through and explaining the various sections such as Secret Intelligence, Special Operations, X-2 Counterespionage, Communications, Research and Analysis and many others. It also covers some of the more successful operations in North Africa, Norway, Italy, China, and Thailand, to name a few." --Scott Van Aken, Modeling Madness (November 2009)