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OSS
The Secret History of America's First Central Intelligence Agency
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Narrated by:
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Joe Barrett
About this listen
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 die was set for some of the most fantastic and fascinating operations the US 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 10,000 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.
Colorful personalities and truly priceless anecdotes abound in what may arguably be called the most authoritative work on the subject.
©2005 Richard Harris Smith (P)2019 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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Black Snow
- Curtis LeMay, the Firebombing of Tokyo, and the Road to the Atomic Bomb
- By: James M. Scott
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 12 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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Seven minutes past midnight on March 10, 1945, nearly 300 American B-29s thundered into the skies over Tokyo. Their payloads of incendiaries ignited a firestorm that reached up to 2,800 degrees, liquefying asphalt and vaporizing thousands; sixteen square miles of the city were flattened and more than 100,000 men, women, and children were killed. Black Snow is the story of this devastating operation, orchestrated by Major General Curtis LeMay, who famously remarked: "If we lose the war, we'll be tried as war criminals."
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Top notch!
- By anonymous on 10-24-22
By: James M. Scott
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Donovan
- America’s Master Spy
- By: Richard Dunlop, William Stephenson - foreword
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 25 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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The fascinating biography of the man who laid the foundation for the CIA. One of the most celebrated and highly decorated heroes of World War I, a noted trial lawyer, presidential adviser and emissary, and chief of America’s Office of Strategic Services during World War II, William J. Donovan was a legendary figure. Donovan, originally published in 1982, penetrates the cloak of secrecy surrounding this remarkable man. The result is the definitive biography that Donovan himself had always expected Dunlop would write.
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Fascinating Biography
- By Jean on 10-15-14
By: Richard Dunlop, and others
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Spies of No Country
- Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel
- By: Matti Friedman
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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The four spies at the center of this story were part of a ragtag unit known as the Arab Section, conceived during World War II by British spies and Jewish militia leaders in Palestine. Intended to gather intelligence and carry out sabotage and assassinations, the unit consisted of Jews who were native to the Arab world and could thus easily assume Arab identities. In 1948, with Israel's existence in the balance during the War of Independence, our spies went undercover in Beirut, where they spent the next two years operating out of a kiosk....
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Absolutely brilliant
- By David Mane on 06-23-19
By: Matti Friedman
What listeners say about OSS
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- Anonymous User
- 07-14-24
Very through and insightful!
Excellent book very well researched! A must listen for anyone interested in espionage and in how it all began!
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- Evan
- 01-23-20
Evan's Review
The book wasn't what I expected. I thought the author would go more in the work of oss with operaterations during the WW11 but instead when more in personalities.
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3 people found this helpful
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- Scott H
- 07-13-21
A book on political science of WWII
This book is more about the political atmosphere of WW2, and where the individuals of the OSS stood in that atmosphere, than what the OSS actually accomplished.
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2 people found this helpful