The Office of Strategic Services was the United States wartime intelligence agency of the Second World War, founded on 13 June 1942 under the Joint Chiefs of Staff, directed by General William J. "Wild Bill" Donovan, and dissolved on 1 October 1945. The OSS was the predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency. It was responsible for espionage and intelligence gathering, covert operations behind enemy lines, analysis of foreign intelligence, propaganda, and support for resistance movements in occupied territories. Where the OSS is credited as an author, the attribution refers to the official reports, declassified intelligence assessments, training manuals, and research and analysis publications it produced during the war. The agency employed a number of figures who later became prominent in American public life, among them Julia Child, Arthur Schlesinger Jr., and John Ford, and its work laid the foundation for modern American intelligence operations.
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