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Cargando... OSS: The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency (edición 1972)por R. Harris Smith (Autor)
Información de la obraOSS: The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency por R. Harris Smith Ninguno Cargando...
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"The best book about America's first modern secret service." --Washington Post Book World In the months before World War II, FDR prepared the country for conflict with Germany and Japan by reshuffling various government agencies to create the Office of Strategic Services--America's first intelligence agency and the direct precursor to the CIA. When he charged William ("Wild Bill") Donovan, a successful Wall Street lawyer and Wilkie Republican, to head up the office, the stage was set for some of the most fantastic and fascinating operations the U.S. government has ever conducted. Author Richard Harris Smith, himself an ex-CIA hand, documents the controversial agency from its conception as a spin-off of the Office of the Coordinator for Information to its demise under Harry Truman and reconfiguration as the CIA. During his tenure, Donovan oversaw a chaotic cast of some ten thousand agents drawn from the most conservative financial scions to the country's most idealistic New Deal true believers. Together they usurped the roles of government agencies both foreign and domestic, concocted unbelievably complicated conspiracies, and fought the good fight against the Axis powers of Germany and Japan. For example, when OSS operatives stole vital military codebooks from the Japanese embassy in Portugal, the operation was considered a success. But the success turned into a flop as the Japanese discovered what had happened, and hastily changed a code that had already been decrypted by the U.S. Navy. Colorful personalities and truly priceless anecdotes abound in what may be called the most authoritative work on the subject. No se han encontrado descripciones de biblioteca. |
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The book also goes into great detail about the politics of the OSS and its relations with other intelligence agencies. From the discussion of the political fighting it seems a wonder that any agency accomplished anything. The squabbling was intense and ever-lasting.
As books go, it is not badly written although the style is pedestrian. The author is a scholar and ex-CIA agent. He is slightly left-of-center and has some interesting things to say about Ho Chi Minh. The book has ample footnotes and a fairly extensive bibliography as well as an index.