The Secret Intelligence Branch of the United States'

Office of Strategic Services The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the first intelligence agency of the United States, formed during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines ...

was a wartime foreign intelligence service responsible for the collection of

human intelligence Human intelligence is the Intellect, intellectual capability of humans, which is marked by complex Cognition, cognitive feats and high levels of motivation and self-awareness. Using their intelligence, humans are able to learning, learn, Concept ...

from a network of field stations in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. In October 1941, while still at the

Office of the Coordinator of Information The Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI) was an intelligence and propaganda agency of the United States Government, founded on July 11, 1941, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, prior to U.S. involvement in the Second World War. It was in ...

(COI),

William Donovan William or Bill(y) Donovan may refer to: Sports * Bill Donovan (1876–1923), pitcher and manager in Major League Baseball * Bill Donovan (Boston Braves pitcher) (1916–1997), pitcher in Major League Baseball *Billy Donovan (born 1965), American b ...

assigned

David K. E. Bruce David Kirkpatrick Este Bruce (February 12, 1898 – December 5, 1977) was an American diplomat, intelligence officer and politician. He served as ambassador to France, the Federal Republic of Germany, and the United Kingdom, the only American t ...

to head up a newly established unit called Special Activities/Bruce (SA/B). Another unit called Special Activities/Goodfellow (SA/G) would be led by

Millard Preston Goodfellow Millard Preston Goodfellow, who often went by the name "Preston Goodfellow," was an American soldier, spy, diplomat, journalist, war correspondent, and newspaper publisher. A veteran of World War I, Goodfellow became a leading figure at the Office ...

. In June 1942, the COI was restructured into the newly established

(OSS). SA/B became the Secret Intelligence Branch, retaining Bruce as its director. SA/G became the Special Operations Branch (SO), with the staff being divided between Goodfellow and Lieutenant Colonel Ellery C. Huntington, Jr. Bruce was succeeded in 1943 by the business executive and international relations expert, Whitney Shepardson. With the post-war abolition of the OSS, in October 1945, the Secret Intelligence branch became part of the

Strategic Services Unit The Strategic Services Unit was an intelligence agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States government that existed in the immediate post–World War II period. It was created from the Secret Intelligence Branch, Secret ...

of the Department of War. The unit was ultimately incorporated into the

Central Intelligence Group The Central Intelligence Group (CIG) was the direct successor to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and the Strategic Services Unit (SSU), and the direct predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The official duties of CIG as quo ...

, which became the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

in 1947.

References

Office of Strategic Services Human intelligence (information gathering) 1942 establishments in the United States Organizations established in 1942 Organizations disestablished in the 1940s {{US-gov-stub