Talk:Office of Strategic Services

Comment
Can anyone cite a source for this statement:
 * "the FBI was responsible for intelligence work in Latin America";

statement clearly says "intelligence, not counterintelligence. This overbroad simplification needs clarification. Thank you. Nobs01 14:16, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

How many times does it tell us that this was an Intelligence Agency in the first sentence! 86.129.27.43 (talk) 09:44, 11 November 2014 (UTC)

William Stephenson addition
The following quoted from the CIA's history of OSS at https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/oss/art02.htm

"As another European war loomed in the late 1930s, fears of fascist and Communist 'Fifth Columns' in America prompted President Franklin D. Roosevelt to ask for greater coordination by the departmental intelligence arms. When little seemed to happen in response to his wish, he tried again in the spring of 1941, expressing his desire to make the traditional intelligence services take a strategic approach to the nation’s challenges—and to cooperate so that he did not have to arbitrate their squabbles. Hello!!!A few weeks later, Roosevelt in frustration resorted to a characteristic stratagem. With some subtle prompting from a pair of British officials — Admiral John H. Godfrey and William Stephenson (later Sir William) — FDR created a new organization to duplicate some of the functions of the existing agencies. The President on 11 July 1941 appointed William J. Donovan of New York to sort the mess as the Coordinator of Information (COI), the head of a new, civilian office attached to the White House."

Stephenson had known Donovan as a personal friend and business associate since WWI. As Churchill's liason to FDR, Sir William is cited in other histories and on many websites as a key figure in the choice of Donovan for the first OSS head. Cheers, Madmagic 07:29, August 27, 2005 (UTC)

Faulty redirect
The Special Operations link under OSS Branches just links back to this page.--2ltben 17:18, 4 July 2006 (UTC)

Faulty redirect
OSS psychological profile report on Hitler 18h44, 21 January 20078

The Office of Strategic Services existed in violation of law. The changes were required to bring the operations into compliance with the posse comitatus and insurrections act. All the functions that could not be done under the military (Surveillance of US Citizens etc...) was transferred to eventually becomes the CIA or other Federal Civilian organizations. Military intelligence and counter intelligence were maintained in the Military structure but removed from any specific service. The act prohibiting these activities spcificaly referes to the Army, Navy and Air Force so the Defense Reorganization Act of 1958 created the Defense Intelligence Agency. Scottprovost 08:26, 14 March 2007 (UTC)
 * Er, what changes and how was the OSS in violation of US law? Your whole post just doesn't make any sense. Shadowrun 06:43, 28 March 2007 (UTC)

Logo
A logo has been repeatedly uploaded here from, but the logo from that website is copyrighted. It was created by that society, is not a work of the US Federal government, and is not PD. We have had many complaints from the society about us using it; please don't upload it again. Stifle (talk) 14:31, 9 July 2009 (UTC)


 * That logo is not copyrighted by that society. In fact, it appears on cia.gov as an official OSS logo. The logo on commons is a derivative work of a screenshot taken directly from the cia.gov website. Kindzmarauli (talk) 07:42, 31 July 2010 (UTC)


 * That's not an official logo anyway. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.189.152.42 (talk) 22:22, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

Source?
Source for "the OSS helped arm, train and supply resistance movements, including Mao Zedong's Red Army in China"? the US helped Communists? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.154.166.165 (talk) 14:19, 13 October 2009 (UTC)


 * I agree, with no source, this is a dubious claim. It's well known that the U.S. had direct ties to Mao's major enemy in the Chinese Civil War, the Nationalist Party. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.189.152.42 (talk) 22:24, 31 December 2010 (UTC)

Relation to Spy Kids
I find it hard to believe that the "OSS" in Spy Kids is not meant at all to be a reference to its real-world counterpart. Perhaps this should be addressed in this article's "In Popular Culture" section? 24.208.207.15 (talk) 06:02, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
 * Not without a citation from a reliable source it shouldn't. Beyond My Ken (talk) 06:47, 26 November 2010 (UTC)

Dana Elcars character in McGyver
Dana Elcars character in McGyver was a former OSS agent. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 83.243.135.40 (talk) 23:13, 18 December 2010 (UTC)

Moe Berg - undue weight
The section on this one agent, who already has his own article, ought to be replaced with a single link, or at most a sentence. The section is hard to edit, as most of the cites consist of interminably long links to google book entries, in which the occasional title or salient fact is buried. HLGallon (talk) 16:26, 27 February 2011 (UTC)
 * This is not at all undue weight, given the 6,400 ghits on Berg in the OSS. And the fact, discernible from a simple google search, that an entire book, entitled The Catcher Was A Spy, has been written on this intersection. This material is covered here, which is proper.--Epeefleche (talk) 16:32, 27 February 2011 (UTC)
 * I agree. Beyond My Ken (talk) 16:53, 27 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Numbers of google hits do not guarantee notability in a given field. There is already a large article, with most of the relevant links and cites on Moe Berg. This section therefore duplicates information in another article or section, a classic example of the applicability of the label. Please discuss before reverting. HLGallon (talk) 17:31, 27 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Number of google hits do not "guarantee" anything. But they are a good sign that the intersection is extremely widely discussed.  Reading a number of them supports that first clue.  Reading the refs in the article further supports it.  Reading the book devoted to the intersection further supports it.  All that dramatically outweighs any bare assertion of "undue weight".--Epeefleche (talk) 17:34, 27 February 2011 (UTC)
 * If I might weigh in here, I wholeheartedly concur with HLGallon that undue weight has been assigned to the Moe Berg section of the OSS article. I suggest that the Moe Berg section be moved from the OSS article to the Moe Berg article, which extensively details his wartime activities. His name be should added to the list of other OSS celebrity personnel (e.g. with Julia Childs and Arthur Schlesigner). Thoughts?

Tom 16:29, 22 May 2012 (UTC)
 * Remove (which I did before seeing this discussion: see history for 18 August 2013). Throwing long bio of one agent into OSS article makes no sense, sorry. Moe Berg has his own article. Doprendek (talk) 20:15, 18 August 2013 (UTC)

Some missing topics ?
Hello, - what about CIA operations in Panama, Cuba, Nicaragua ? - What about the OSS/CIA experimenting with virus infections on prisoners in and after WW2 ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.93.143.176 (talk) 13:23, 22 March 2011 (UTC)
 * This article is not about the CIA. If you've got a reliable source for something relevant to the OSS, what is it? Beyond My Ken (talk) 00:56, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Duncan Lee, and Other Double Agents
It seems to me that Duncan Lee should be mentioned. The Duncan Lee article describes him as "the most senior alleged source the Soviet Union ever had inside American intelligence".

Additionally, a little browsing turns up lots of references to the OSS being riddled with Soviet agents...maybe an overly-strong way to describe it, but surely worth mentioning in this article. Also, I am not sure "double agent" is the right term for this activity...I would not add the term to the article without knowing more. --Taquito1 (talk) 14:45, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
 * Is there any reason that you can't update the article? Beyond My Ken (talk) 23:36, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

Activies -- Dixie Mission
There's a "We ..." in there.

Did a participant in the mission edit the page, or was this a mis-attributed quote? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nice ass samson (talk • contribs) 23:54, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

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Fluff
The personnel section is full of fluff. For example:

It reads like a press release, or some kind of promotional pamphlet, which makes sense since many of the sources are from governmental documents, where there are sources at all. Red Rock Canyon (talk) 12:06, 16 May 2019 (UTC)

CIA Jurisdiction?
What do you do when they brainwash you and rape you in a previous life? And you have the memory of Bourne and your soul is entangled with the ghosts of tortures? I have the memory of Bourne. I forgive them because they are dead now. I see what you do to them like Kennedy. I forgive. But I let you know that I have the ghosts of them and the torturers and brainwashers lost. I have no lawsuit to give. But I know what happens in the Oval Office and Buckingham. I know how you get them to sign every Executive Order and Assent. I don't fight for Halal and politics. I fight the Assent. I fight the nuclear football, CIA. I won't push the button in any timeline. I will be free of the nuclear football for all time. Hot Goldman will die. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.8.134.157 (talk) 20:16, 25 January 2024 (UTC)