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Stealth, to the Nth Degree
“The name is Bond, James Bond.,“ is a quote synonymous with the imaginary world of high stakes intrigue. In relation to some compelling new information, it seems dually profound that both the character and his creator have ties to the clandestine avenues of espionage. In 1939, the Director of Naval Intelligence for the Royal Navy, Rear Admiral John Godfrey, recruited Ian Fleming, then member of the Black Watch, as his personal assistant. Eventually Fleming reached the rank of Commander, his codename being 17F. Interestingly enough, Fleming would later go on to write twelve novels and two short story collections obviously inspired by his years in covert operations. The fascinating fact is that Fleming’s expertise was utilized by the United States during World War II.
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) recently came into the headlines when a surprising list of WWII spies was released to the public. The OSS was created by Franklin D. Roosevelt in July 1942, replacing the Office of the Coordinator of Information (OCI) which was considered to be terribly ineffective. Ian Fleming, the creator of the James Bond character, often joked around that he had aided in the formation of the CIA, and we now know that the jest was founded in truth. Colonel William ”Wild Bill” Donovan was selected by Roosevelt to head the organization partly because he had studied a British Governmental Agency called the Special Operations Executive (SOE) set up in 1940. Donovan, mindful of Ian’s proficiency, enlisted his help in creating a blueprint for the OSS, subsequently producing a 72 page briefing about how this group should appear and function, including the description of the ideal agent which sounds remarkably like the character of agent 007, Bond, who is the central figure in Fleming‘s spy novels. The document is on display at London’s Imperial War Museum as a part of the exhibit For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond.
The recent declassification of the OSS files piece together the fragments of rumors and claims such as Fleming’s that many ordinary citizens played crucial roles for the allies during the years of WWII. The complexities of the wages of war and espionage are far more evident in the group of seemingly ordinary individuals whose commitment to the U.S. went far beyond the supposed call of duty as civilians. The list made public on August 14th this week includes such notables as Julia Child, beloved unkempt television chef, and Sterling Hayden, “Dr. Strangelove’s” lunatic general and corrupt policeman in “The Godfather.” Child handled classified communications from remote posts in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and China. Hayden was an operative who parachuted into autocratic Croatia. Their’s are only two of the 35,000 personnel files made available from a Washington National Archives facility.
Though the files primarily relate names, amounts paid for services rendered, where those employees were sent, and not the details of the operations carried out, they do give us insight into the birth of clandestine engagements. William Casey, the controversial CIA director under Ronald Reagan during the Iran Contra scandal, so prepared his operatives that it was said they could seamlessly blend into the general public and that no one, not even the feared Gestapo, would suspect them. His plan to drop them via parachute over their designated assignments during the “moonless period of the month” gave them the cover necessary to ditch their mode of delivery and become those perfectly believable identities who would draw no attention.
Others of significant notoriety in other arenas are millionaire philanthropist Paul Mellon, historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., CIA directors Richard Helms and Allen Dulles, major league baseball catcher Morris “Moe” Berg and Supreme court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg. Most Americans on this list of agents were unremarkable citizens who went on after the organization disbanded to live ordinary unassuming lives. Four such personalities were on hand to witness the opening of their own files, one of which was Elizabeth McIntosh, now 93. She was elated to learn that her supervisors at the OSS gave her enthusiastic remarks for her work.
The OSS gave birth to an ancillary intelligence relationship with our ally Great Britain and aided in the formation of practices still in play today. The department was only in operation for slightly more than three years, disbanded by President Truman in September of 1945, a month and a half after WWII was over. Four months later the Central Intelligence Group, precursor of the CIA, was created. The National Security Act of 1947 established the Central Intelligence Agency, America’s first peacetime intelligence organization.
The major departments of the OSS were:
Research and Analysis: Part of the OSS responsible for intelligence analysis.
Research and Development: Sector in charge of creating and developing weapons and equipment.
Morale Operations: Branch involved in "black propaganda" designed to hurt enemy morale.
Maritime Units: Whose duties included transporting agents by sea to target areas as well as frogman units of undersea swimmers to engage in sabotage and reconnaissance.
X-2: Unit whose sole role was counterespionage.
Secret Intelligence: Field agents who covertly gathered intelligence.
Special Operations : Highly skilled operatives specializing in sabotage and guerrilla warfare.
Operational Groups: Foreign-language speaking commando teams involved in similar activities to that of the SO.
©
I've added a video on the Bond/Fleming exhibit in London. There is a fairly entertaining radio interview with Philip Gardiner about the hidden meanings in the James Bond novels entitled "The Bond Code Life of James Bond Author Ian Fleming" available on Youtube, divided into several parts.
The following link is to an interesting blog from 2004 on the OSS. There are photos depicting members of missions carried out by the organization.
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=9952
The OSS and the London "Free Germans":
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no1/article03.html
Link to a letter of introduction of Canadian diplomat Herbert Norman and Colonel William Donovan:
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/norman/archives/governmentdocument/5458en.html
Links to letters and related materials about correspondences among German officials intercepted by OSS operatives:
WARNING: The language is disturbing.
http://www.archives.gov/iwg/reports/images/treatment-of-italian-jews-1.jpg
http://www.archives.gov/iwg/research-papers/images/chilean-diplomats-learn-about-holocaust-02-04-42.jpg
http://www.archives.gov/iwg/research-papers/images/chilean-diplomats-learn-about-holocaust-03-20-42.jpg
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) recently came into the headlines when a surprising list of WWII spies was released to the public. The OSS was created by Franklin D. Roosevelt in July 1942, replacing the Office of the Coordinator of Information (OCI) which was considered to be terribly ineffective. Ian Fleming, the creator of the James Bond character, often joked around that he had aided in the formation of the CIA, and we now know that the jest was founded in truth. Colonel William ”Wild Bill” Donovan was selected by Roosevelt to head the organization partly because he had studied a British Governmental Agency called the Special Operations Executive (SOE) set up in 1940. Donovan, mindful of Ian’s proficiency, enlisted his help in creating a blueprint for the OSS, subsequently producing a 72 page briefing about how this group should appear and function, including the description of the ideal agent which sounds remarkably like the character of agent 007, Bond, who is the central figure in Fleming‘s spy novels. The document is on display at London’s Imperial War Museum as a part of the exhibit For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond.
The recent declassification of the OSS files piece together the fragments of rumors and claims such as Fleming’s that many ordinary citizens played crucial roles for the allies during the years of WWII. The complexities of the wages of war and espionage are far more evident in the group of seemingly ordinary individuals whose commitment to the U.S. went far beyond the supposed call of duty as civilians. The list made public on August 14th this week includes such notables as Julia Child, beloved unkempt television chef, and Sterling Hayden, “Dr. Strangelove’s” lunatic general and corrupt policeman in “The Godfather.” Child handled classified communications from remote posts in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and China. Hayden was an operative who parachuted into autocratic Croatia. Their’s are only two of the 35,000 personnel files made available from a Washington National Archives facility.
Though the files primarily relate names, amounts paid for services rendered, where those employees were sent, and not the details of the operations carried out, they do give us insight into the birth of clandestine engagements. William Casey, the controversial CIA director under Ronald Reagan during the Iran Contra scandal, so prepared his operatives that it was said they could seamlessly blend into the general public and that no one, not even the feared Gestapo, would suspect them. His plan to drop them via parachute over their designated assignments during the “moonless period of the month” gave them the cover necessary to ditch their mode of delivery and become those perfectly believable identities who would draw no attention.
Others of significant notoriety in other arenas are millionaire philanthropist Paul Mellon, historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., CIA directors Richard Helms and Allen Dulles, major league baseball catcher Morris “Moe” Berg and Supreme court Justice Arthur J. Goldberg. Most Americans on this list of agents were unremarkable citizens who went on after the organization disbanded to live ordinary unassuming lives. Four such personalities were on hand to witness the opening of their own files, one of which was Elizabeth McIntosh, now 93. She was elated to learn that her supervisors at the OSS gave her enthusiastic remarks for her work.
The OSS gave birth to an ancillary intelligence relationship with our ally Great Britain and aided in the formation of practices still in play today. The department was only in operation for slightly more than three years, disbanded by President Truman in September of 1945, a month and a half after WWII was over. Four months later the Central Intelligence Group, precursor of the CIA, was created. The National Security Act of 1947 established the Central Intelligence Agency, America’s first peacetime intelligence organization.
The major departments of the OSS were:
Research and Analysis: Part of the OSS responsible for intelligence analysis.
Research and Development: Sector in charge of creating and developing weapons and equipment.
Morale Operations: Branch involved in "black propaganda" designed to hurt enemy morale.
Maritime Units: Whose duties included transporting agents by sea to target areas as well as frogman units of undersea swimmers to engage in sabotage and reconnaissance.
X-2: Unit whose sole role was counterespionage.
Secret Intelligence: Field agents who covertly gathered intelligence.
Special Operations : Highly skilled operatives specializing in sabotage and guerrilla warfare.
Operational Groups: Foreign-language speaking commando teams involved in similar activities to that of the SO.
©
I've added a video on the Bond/Fleming exhibit in London. There is a fairly entertaining radio interview with Philip Gardiner about the hidden meanings in the James Bond novels entitled "The Bond Code Life of James Bond Author Ian Fleming" available on Youtube, divided into several parts.
The following link is to an interesting blog from 2004 on the OSS. There are photos depicting members of missions carried out by the organization.
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=9952
The OSS and the London "Free Germans":
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no1/article03.html
Link to a letter of introduction of Canadian diplomat Herbert Norman and Colonel William Donovan:
http://www.canadianmysteries.ca/sites/norman/archives/governmentdocument/5458en.html
Links to letters and related materials about correspondences among German officials intercepted by OSS operatives:
WARNING: The language is disturbing.
http://www.archives.gov/iwg/reports/images/treatment-of-italian-jews-1.jpg
http://www.archives.gov/iwg/research-papers/images/chilean-diplomats-learn-about-holocaust-02-04-42.jpg
http://www.archives.gov/iwg/research-papers/images/chilean-diplomats-learn-about-holocaust-03-20-42.jpg
Tags: espionage
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