OSS: THE SECRET HISTORY... by author Richard Harris Smith:

[Bruce P. Brychek]

Thursday
03.12.2026
1:35 p.m.,
Chicago, Illinois time:

Dear Global Forum Members and Readers;

Richard Harris Smith began writing the history of the OSS after resigning from the CIA in 1968. He now deals in rare
and antique American books and lives with his daughter in California."

OSS, THE SECRET HISTORY OF AMERICA'S FIRST CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY, 1972, 2005, by Richard Harris Smith...
"Smith combining the style of a journalist with the scholarly approach of the political scientist, has provided an
excellent overview of the role of the OSS during the two-front war against Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan...
Tracing the names, the half-submerged links between the intelligence community and what Richard Rover has
called the American Establishment, is what makes Smith's book so fascinating and valuable."
Washington Post Book World

"Smith's absorbing book is really an introduction to what the OSS and its crew of generally exceptionally able and
imaginative employees was all about."
Foreign Service Journal.

"Smith describes how the OSS figured in, and was related to the whole diplomatic and military history of the war."
Annals

"In the months before WW II, FDR prepared the country for conflict with Germany and Japan by reshuffling various
government agencies to create the Office of Strategic Services - American's first intelligence agency and the direct
precursor to the CIA. When he charged Willian ("Wild Bill") Donovan, a successful Wall Street lawyer and Willkie
Republican, to head up the office, the stage was set for some of the most fantastic and fascinating operations the
U.S. government has ever concocted. Author Richard Harris Smith, himself an ex-CIA hand documents the
controversial agency from its conception as a spin 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 ten thousand agents drawn from the most conservative
financial scions in 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. For example, when the OSS operatives stole vital military
codebooks from the Japanese embassy in Portugal, the operation was considered a success. But the success turned
into a flop as the Japanese discovered what happened, and hastily changed a code that had already been decrypted
by the U.S. Navy."

My Commentary:

Needless to say that I think that this book is indispensable for studying the history and development of of the OSS
and its evolution into the CIA.

Recommendation/Suggestion Number 1. First read the History and Development of both Great Britain's MI-5 and
MI-6.

Recommendation/Suggestion Number 2. Second re-read and reevaluate the OSS after studying MI-5 and MI-6.

Recommendation/Suggestion Number 3. Read, research and study the formative years of the CIA with an overview
through today.

Recommendation/Suggestion Number 4: Read, research and study everything that you can find about James Jesus
Angleton (JJA). He worked with MI-5 and MI-6. He later worked for the OSS. Then JJA worked for the CIA as the
Director of Counter Intelligence for 20+ years as the Number 2 man to Allen Welsh Dulles.

JJA taught 3 Level Chess to his CIA agents to help them learn how to analyze, visualize, and think through and
operate multi-level Clandestine CIA Programs.

JJA personally played 5 level Chess. In addition, JJA's other hobby was cultivating, breeding, developing and
nurturing Orchids - on 10 year cycles. He possessed a brilliant intellect and foresight for planning that was
revered by many, and feared by others. J. Edgar and Richard Nixon said JJA was he only man they ever feared.

Allegedly JJA gave the bi-sexual/homosexual photos of J. Edgar Hoover and his boy friend/roommate Clyde
Tolson to Sam "Momo" Giancana of The Chicago Outfit to blackmail Hoover into claiming that there was no
Mafia or Organized Crime. More than one FBI agent asked me if I thought Hoover was had. I'm from Chicago
and knew of the Mafia, The Outfit and Organized Crime since grade school in the Land of Al Capone'. Of
course I thought Yes !

These photos are alluded to in Oliver Stone's monumental work the movie: JFK.

thoughts...
best...
bb.