Creation of the Office of Strategic Services

When the United States entered the war in 1941, the government needed to preserve unity of public opinion and strengthen ties among the Allied Big Four. Roosevelt wanted to focus on the military aspect of the war, not the political. FDR promised to bind the Allies together through military assistance, such as Lend-Lease and the creation of a Second Front. Roosevelt’s campaign centered around minimizing the political dimensions of the war. In order to defuse political controversy, FDR had to develop a method for making operational decisions that appeared to be apolitical. This was accomplished by reserving all decision-making powers related to the conduct of the war to himself and his top military officers, the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This staff was comprised of four members, including the Chief of Staff of the Army, the Chief of Naval Operations, the Commanding General of the Army Air Forces, and the Chief of Staff to the President. As the war continued, decisions moved out of the hands of the Cabinet and into those of the Joint Chiefs. In order to be successful in conducting military operations, the various military branches needed to coordinate and this was accomplished through the Joint Chiefs of Staff. All actions were guided by the principle of military necessity, thus minimizing the loss of American men and materials. The supreme Anglo-American military agency, the Combined Chiefs of Staff, consisted of the British Chiefs of Staff Committee as well as the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff.

To avoid repeating the same mistakes of the First World War, Roosevelt adopted a policy of unconditional surrender in November 1942. Intelligence gathering was essential to bringing about a quicker victory. The British had established an intelligence agency, the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), prior to the United States’ creation of the OSS. Two new agencies were also created as part of Britain’s counterintelligence efforts: the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) in charge of propaganda, and the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in charge of carrying out sabotage and assisting guerilla warfare. The United States aimed at combining the tasks of Britain’s three agencies into one organization. After the United States entered the war, the Coordinator of Information was expanded and renamed the Office of Strategic Services, which modeled the three British agencies and combined them into one organization under the direction of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  

During the war the OSS was not central to the decision making process. The British intelligence agency had more experience and successes in the past so they took the lead in most operations. Eisenhower even utilized the British intelligence agency, as he felt that the United States had a huge deficiency in the intelligence field. The Combined Chiefs of Staff not only made the important decisions, but it also widened the gap between the Soviet Union and the West, as it excluded the Soviets from the partnership. While the Soviets only worked with the Western powers at the summit level, the British and Americans continuously worked together in this partnership making daily political decisions. The Anglo-American decision-making system functioned independently of the Soviets, as they played no role in the planning and execution of Operation Sunrise. This operation was initiated by the Germans and responded to by the Western powers.

 Sources:

Ambrose, Stephen. "Eisenhower and the Intelligence Community in World War II". Journal of Contemporary History no. 16 (1981): 153-166.

Smith, Bradley F. & Agarossi, Elena. Operation Sunrise: The Secret Surrender. New York: Basic Books, 1979.

Warner, Michael. The Office of Strategic Services: America's First Central Intelligence Agency. Washington D.C.: Central Intelligence Agency, 2000. http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/oss/