Current Issue

American Clandestine Intelligence
in Early Postwar Europe
by DAVID ALVAREZ -- abstract

The early post-World War II operations of the principal American clandestine services, the Office of Strategic Services and its successor, the Strategic Services Unit, were seriously compromised by insufficient staff, bureaucratic bickering in Washington over the shape and scope of postwar intelligence programs, inadequate guidance and direction from headquarters, and the need, particularly in Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe, to create from little or nothing a clandestine intelligence apparatus. The result was a cautious and rather lackluster approach to intelligence collection that often produced information of purely local or ephemeral interest. Only in early 1946, when the Soviet Union emerged as the primary target, did American clandestine intelligence in Europe begin to reacquire the resources, focus and energy necessary to serve the needs of American policy makers.