Office of Strategic Services

Office of Strategic Services To be an effective spy one must have all of the fancy gadgets there are, right? Well, no. But the spies from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) did. They included a uniform button that was really a compass, a 16mm camera shaped like a matchbox, and a deck of playing cards that concealed a map which would be revealed when the top layer was soaked off. "As another European war …

…included four future Directors of Central Intelligence: Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, William Colby, and William Casey. Ironically, however, the one OSS veteran who did the most to promote such an agency--William J. Donovan--did not make the transition to it. "In CIA the US Government fulfilled General Donovan's vision. Central intelligence and unconventional warfare capabilities are now built into the nation's command and security policies and ready at all times to protect America and its interests."