A British Protégé, An ‘Unwelcome Newcomer’
In the early days, close collaboration with the British secret services proved OSS’s
lifeblood as the organization struggled to demonstrate its usefulness to U.S. intelligence
“consumers”, particularly the President, and weather infighting with bureaucratic powerhouses
like the State Department and FBI. The OSS Chief Historian writes:
Early formulation of relationships in London was the key to the future. SO and X-
2…accepted offers from Britain’s SOE and MI6 (V) of complete sharing of operations
and techniques they had developed over the years. In return, SOE and MI6 (V) demanded
knowledge of SO and X-2 operations and a degree of coordination which often amounted
to complete control. American acceptance was basically the result of Donovan’s feeling
that SO was a purely wartime activity which could afford, at least in the early stages, to
surrender independence for rapid learning.
11
COI/OSS gained a great deal of effectiveness from its early liaison with British; in particular, the
British could teach the complicated tradecraft techniques COI had to acquire in a relatively short period that “were in many cases foreign[…] to American thought.”
12 Early COI recruits were
indoctrinated into special operations at British paramilitary and commando training facilities,
most famously at Camp X in Ontario, Canada, and the organization’s leaders received daily
guidance from their counterparts through the COI base established in London in November
1941.13
Moreover, it is probable that COI would not have survived to become the OSS without
the British intelligence Donovan funneled to FDR. As COI had yet to develop its own apparatus
for collecting foreign intelligence, almost all of the material it provided to the White House came
from British sources: the BSC, the British embassy, liaison through the COI representative in
London, among others.
14 But as the War Report explains, this reliance on British intelligence
came at a price. While COI greatly benefited from its association with SOE and SIS, it also ran
the risk of being labeled a British agent by U.S. government agencies. Indeed, when Donovan
pushed for a peacetime extension of the OSS in 1945, the press put out a number of stories
damning the organization as a British lackey, citing OSS agents’ training in England, the Brits’
extensive access to OSS information, and the close relationship between OSS and BSC.
15
As the young organization depended on the goodwill of the President and assistance from
a foreign intelligence entity, it is unsurprising that COI struggled to survive the turf wars that
sprung up around it. COI soon found that Roosevelt’s vague mandate in the July 11th
order often
created conflicts with other divisions, especially the FBI, the State Department, and the various
military intelligence agencies.
16 David Bruce, the OSS chief of station in London, stated that these well-established departments “forgot their internecine animosities and joined in an attempt
to strangle the unwanted newcomer at birth.”
17 Donovan soon developed enemies in Washington
as he strove to expand his organization’s purview and his nickname “Wild Bill” became a
pejorative among his opponents for what they saw as his “threatening and unfocused” agenda.
18
After the U.S. military bureaucracy underwent a massive reorganization to prepare for war postPearl
Harbor, COI barely escaped extinction, surviving through the “hesitant but ultimately
supportive”
19 role of the new Joint Chiefs of Staff JCS.
Aided by an Anglo-American grand strategy calling for “subversive activity,” COI
managed to hang on during the reshuffling, coming under the jurisdiction of the JCS.
Nevertheless, in March 1942, a JCS report proposed the complete dismemberment of COI with
its various apparatuses incorporated into the military establishment. But by April, military
officials began to reconsider. The JCS apparently decided that the military should retain control
over guerilla operations, but these operations should be carried out by civilians, not soldiers.
20
The JCS’s awareness of the strategic role of guerilla operations most likely stemmed from the
Allied grand strategy signed in December 1941, in which Churchill and Roosevelt emphasized
“subversive activity” as a key element in undermining German resistance.
21 In this regard,
Donovan’s organization could be very useful, and so the JCS agreed to bring COI under its
authority. On June 13th
, 1942, the President signed an order rechristening Donovan’s group as the OSS and placing it under the jurisdiction of the JCS.
22 Ten days later, a JCS order delineated
OSS’s mission: to prepare “intelligence studies” and research; to plan and “execute subversive
activities”; and to “operate and train an organization for the collection of information through
espionage.”
23 The OSS would now need to prove its worth to its new military overseers, a still
skeptical group who had been some of COI’s most powerful critics
24 ,in the form of strong
performance in the field and support from U.S. theater commanders and their staffs.
With OSS’s legitimacy now secured in the Washington hierarchy as a JCS instrument,
instead of a fly-by-night civilian answerable to the President, the OSS set out to differentiate its
areas of operations in relation to the British SOE. Through discussions between the OSS and
SOE chiefs in June 1942, agreements designated certain geographic spheres of responsibility for
each organization to avoid duplication of effort and confusion.25 SOE won primary control of
much of Europe, the Balkans, the Middle East, East and West Africa, and India, while OSS
would have operational predominance in North Africa and the majority of the Far East, including
China.
26 Within the “invasion sphere” in Europe – designated as areas where Allied forces
planned to reenter the continent – all OSS personnel who wished to participate would have to
work through SOE essentially in a supporting role.
27 The protocols gave the OSS responsibility
for two major combat zones – North Africa and the Far East
28 – but it was clear the organization would need to prove itself in order to participate on equal footing with the British services in the
European theater, where the bulk of the Anglo-American military effort would be targeted.