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Rating: 
Summary: Additional Editorial Reviews for OSS
Review: "First rate reading for fans of cloak-and-dagger stuff..."
-Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)Review by Dennis Showalter for the History Book Club (OSS is a Main Selection) Operatives, Spies, and Saboteurs is as gripping as a techno-thriller, with the bonus that its stories are true. O'Donnell's history of the Office of Strategic Service begins with President Franklin Roosevelt's decision that a country on the edge of entering a world war for survival needed an undercover foreign intelligence service. On July 11, 1941, he ordered the establishment of a Coordinator of Information, whose mission was to collect and analyze all information relevant to national security. Its head was Colonel William "Wild Bill" Donovan. Front-line infantryman in World War I, Wall Street lawyer and business executive, former Assistant Attorney General, Donovan became one of the century's masters of clandestine war. He argued convincingly that the U.S.needed an organization that would take the fight to the Axis through propaganda, espionage, sabotage and guerrilla operations. In June 1942 the COI's name was changed to Office of Strategic Service; it was placed directly under the Joint Chiefs of Staff-and Donovan set about building a legend. The "Oh So Secret" recruited from Ivy League schools, law firms, corporations, and-occasionally-prisons. Veterans of the Spanish Civil War, stigmatized elsewhere as "premature anti-fascists," were assigned to work with Communist resistance networks. Foreign nationals, even some prisoners of war, joined and went behind Axis lines with ropes around their necks, knowing they could expect only execution if captured. O'Donnell conducted extensive interviews with over 300 former OSS members. He then cross-checked their narratives, as far as possible, against the extensive OSS records in the National Archives, many only recently declassified. First committed in North Africa, OSS teams and individuals operated in Sicily and Italy, in the Balkans alongside their British counterparts. But it was in France that the organization did its best work and had its greatest days. Well before the invasion, OSS agents were parachuted in to contact and organize resistance groups. Once the invasion began, OSS teams engaged in guerrilla operations, especially against the 2nd SS Panzer Division on its march to Normandy. It was not all triumph. Individual operations were blown or defeated, usually at heavy cost in lives. A late-war OSS attempt to support partisans in Slovakia ended in disaster, with most of the agents falling into German hands. Nor was the OSS entirely about derring-do behind Axis lines. O'Donnell included a solid chapter describing the growing sophistication and effectiveness of OSS efforts in the field of propaganda. By the end of the war, OSS agents were conducting diplomatic negotiations as well, above all in Italy, where Allen Dulles, later chief of the Cold War CIA, played a key role in negotiating a theater-level German surrender. O'Donnell concludes by suggesting the OSS may well have been too successful for its own good. Roosevelt's successor, Harry S. Truman, disbanded the organization in part because he feared an "American Gestapo." In little over a year Truman would authorize the Central Intelligence Agency, which for good and ill took over the OSS records, a good few of its agents, and its heritage.
About the Author: Patrick K. O'Donnell, the author of Beyond Valor and Into the Rising Sun, is a pioneer of Internet-based "oral history." He is the creator of www.thedropzone.org, a virtual community for WWII veterans and buffs dedicated to collecting and sharing stories of the war. About the Reviewer: DENNIS SHOWALTER is Prof.of History at Colorado College. He is the author of Tannenberg. "A revealing look into the intrigue and extraordinary courage of our intelligence gatherers of World War II . A rare combination of suspense thriller and true heroism by a great American writer." -Clive Cussler "Before there was a James Bond or a CIA, before there was a genre called the spy thriller, real-life spooks worked behind the scenes, often at tremendous risk, to win World War II. Deftly using oral history and recently declassified documents, Patrick O'Donnell gives us a fascinating look at the shaken-not-stirred life of these intrepid spies and soldiers, who are into intrigue before intrigue was cool." -Hampton Sides, author of GHOST SOLDIERS "This is a unique and uniquely valuable contribution, casting a penetrating light into the war in the shadows during World War II. O'Donnell breaks new ground with these first hand accounts by people who never expected to tell their story. Just as there was nothing new to say, along comes a book like this." -Geoffrey Perret, Author of Eisenhower "OPERATIVES, SPIES AND SABOTEURS is a superbly told story of the men and women of the OSS. Only by understanding the deeds of those who have gone before us can we appreciate the sacrifices made that paved the way for the outstanding records established by present-day special warriors." -Captain Robert A. Gormly, USN (Ret.), author of COMBAT SWIMMER and former commander SEAL Teams Two and Six and Naval Special Warfare Group Two
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Summary: A GRAND SLAM IN STORYTELLING
Review: I bought the book and couldn't put it down after reading it straight through over the weekend. So much of O'Donnell's book contains new information on OSS and WWII. O'Donnell does a masterful job capturing OSS's most important missions and the incredible exploits of these men and women agents most of them untold until now. The narrative style of this book combined with oral history, allows it to read like some of Ambrose's classics like D-Day or Citizen Soldiers. O'Donnell has changed his style compared to his other books yet he still allows the voices of these incredible spies and Special Forces troops to speak I was really stunned with what OSS did during the war: everything from creating the first SEALS; to blowing up bridges in Greece; to operation CROSS a team of 100 ex-German POWs trained to kill or kidnap Hitler. Some of the best chapters revolve around Greece and the Balkans which have hardly been touched by most historians. Also entertaining was the chapter revolving around spy gadgets created in OSS labs. OSS made everything from umbrella guns to cigarettes that were .22 caliber pistols to something called the "Truth Drug." The missions into Germany itself made my hair stand up in the back of head, especially, the stories from Jewish-American veterans that went back facing almost certain death if they were captured.
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Summary: First Hand Testimony Is Always The Best
Review: This book is not "War and Peace", nor is it a comprehensive book on spies, but rather it is a collection of stories using first hand testimony of the participants in the OSS in WWII. In that context the book is different from most of what must now be a 1000 books on WWII. The strength of this book is the excellent writing and the series of interesting characters and their stories, all involving ordinary men that do heroic things. Thankfully their stories have been recorded by the author since many of these men are now many in the 80's and their first hand recollections will soon be lost. In any case the book is better that one might expect. I first heard about this book on WABC where John Bachelor has interviewed a series of the living subjects or "spies" on air on his late daily show at 10:00 PM. The guys are ordinary but the stories are often riveting. They put themselves in tremendous danger with their patriotic actions. In many ways this book is like the recent Tim Russert book - a sleeper. The book seems okay from what you have heard from others and from interviews on the radio, but the book is actually a much better read. In many ways the both books (Russert and this book) are on subjects that when properly presented become compelling page turning reads. This is a great value and a good book. Four Stars Jack in Toronto
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Summary: Intense History
Review: World War II is such a historical epic, so monumental and sweeping in its scale, that much can be lost in the massive threads that make up the truly great human war. At the same time, the scholarship concerning the war and its effects are so voluminous that little has not been touched on. That's why I was so pleasantly surprised when I finished author Patrick O'Donnell's excellent new history of the Office of Strategic Services, America's WWII era intelligence agency. I have read hundreds of thousands of pages on the war, but I would say 90 percent of the material and stories presented in this book were unknown to me. O'Donnell himself sounds surprised, as he tracked down dozens of aging ex-agents who were willing to give him their long held secrets in amazing detail. O'Donnell has a talent with grafting these new stories with superb document research, giving a gripping and complete account of the OSS in the European theater. Probably the most startiling tale in this book is how unprepared the United States was for a covert war. The idea of an OSS type group was almost foreign to all American leaders, especially the military. It was only through the enlightened stubborness of the OSS' first director, decorated WWI director Willian "Wild Bill" Donovan, that the US government recognized the need for an international spy agency. It was amazing how rapidly the OSS was able to construct itself, even though it recieved substantial support from its big brothers across the pond, Britain's MI-6. O'Donnell is clear and concise as he describes the makeup and training behind the genesis of the OSS. As the US entered the war against Hitler, the OSS was rapidly moving to counter the threat posed to the world's most powerful democracy. The stories of the OSS in North Africa were amazing to me, this book serves as both an education piece and as a testament to the men and women who were willing to take unimaginable risks in order to hurt the Axis. In Africa, Italy, and the Balkans, OSS teams, made up of both American and foreign agents were instrumental in many Allied successes, such as the guerilla wars in Yugoslavia that caused Germany so many problems. O'Donnell is always ready to remind the reader that the bravery of the OSS was not confined to their American agents, the foreign operatives and armies of the OSS were often fanatically dedicated to the defeat of their homelands fascist oppressors. As the war against Nazi Germany developed, so did OSS methods and challenges. No longer was OSS faced with the far reaches of the Nazi empire, they were now sending assets directly into the heart of the Reich. At the same time, OSS was charged with very difficult objectives, such as preparing the way for Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of France. These missions made for some great reading, as OSS agents fought with French resistance fighters in order to complicate Nazi military reaction. This included hair raising missions including the destruction of communication hubs, railroads, and convoys. Most famously, the OSS helped Free French forces battle the 2nd SS "Das Reich" Panzer division as it traveled north to the invasion beachheads, delaying it for a full month. Less glamourously, OSS agents and spies worked in places such as Switzerland and Sweden, picking up on Nazi secrets and signals. Psychological units worked tirelessly to erode Nazi morale with a bag full of nefarious tricks. At the end, the OSS was active, amazingly, within Germany itself, where it fought a covert war against the massive Nazi apparatus and its violently fearsome security organs, such as the SS-SD and the Gestapo. As the stakes became higher, so did the risks, and many a OSS operative or member met horrific fate at the hands of Himmler's sadists. Narrative hstories are always a bit tough to write effectively, as you have to avoid the temptation to just throw all of the interviews together with little real insight. O'Donnell avoids this tripwire, by providing extremely effective scholarly research with the amazingly detailed interviews and testimonials by men and women who have gone relatively unrecognized. Their effect has been felt all over the world, as the covert wars of the 1940's have provided blueprints for the covert wars of today. Some have derided the OSS impact on the overall war, but O'Donnell is careful to point out the OSS' critical role in several turning points of the conflict. It is a very rewarding learning experience while at the same providing for Fleming like action. Amazing book.
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