OSS

An American organisation of the Second World War whose work included infiltrating people and sabotage; the predecessor of the CIA.

Description based on Crypto Museum.¹

The International Spy Museum describes the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) as the United States' Second World War intelligence, sabotage and subversion organisation; its initials were jokingly expanded as, among other things, “Oh So Secret”.²

According to a CIA article on the Jedburgh teams, in 1942 the United States joined Britain's subversive operations in occupied Europe, and the OSS Special Operations branch formed the Jedburgh teams together with the SOE. After the war many OSS members, including the future Director of the CIA William Colby, joined the newly created CIA, the OSS's successor.³