Sub Rosa: The O. S. S. and American Espionage
Jun 2016 · Open Road Media
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237
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About this ebook
A thrilling history of the Office of Strategic Services, America’s precursor to the CIA, and its secret operations behind enemy lines during World War II.
Born in the fires of the Second World War, the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, was the brainchild of legendary US Maj. Gen. William “Wild Bill” Donovan, designed to provide covert aid to resistance fighters in European nations occupied by Germany’s Nazi aggressors. Paratroopers Stewart Alsop and Thomas Braden—both of whom would become important political columnists in postwar years—became part of Wild Bill’s able collection of soldiers, spies, and covert operatives. Sub Rosa is an enthralling insider’s history of the remarkable intelligence operation that gave birth to the CIA.
In Sub Rosa, Alsop and Braden take readers on a breathtaking journey through the birth and development of the top secret wartime espionage organization and detail many of the extraordinary OSS missions in France, Germany, Dakar and Casablanca in North Africa, and in the jungles of Burma that helped to hasten the end of the Japanese Empire and the fall of Adolf Hitler’s powerful Reich.
As exciting as any international thriller written by Eric Ambler or Graham Greene, Alsop and Braden’s Sub Rosa is an indispensable addition to the literary history of American espionage and intelligence.
Born in the fires of the Second World War, the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, was the brainchild of legendary US Maj. Gen. William “Wild Bill” Donovan, designed to provide covert aid to resistance fighters in European nations occupied by Germany’s Nazi aggressors. Paratroopers Stewart Alsop and Thomas Braden—both of whom would become important political columnists in postwar years—became part of Wild Bill’s able collection of soldiers, spies, and covert operatives. Sub Rosa is an enthralling insider’s history of the remarkable intelligence operation that gave birth to the CIA.
In Sub Rosa, Alsop and Braden take readers on a breathtaking journey through the birth and development of the top secret wartime espionage organization and detail many of the extraordinary OSS missions in France, Germany, Dakar and Casablanca in North Africa, and in the jungles of Burma that helped to hasten the end of the Japanese Empire and the fall of Adolf Hitler’s powerful Reich.
As exciting as any international thriller written by Eric Ambler or Graham Greene, Alsop and Braden’s Sub Rosa is an indispensable addition to the literary history of American espionage and intelligence.
About the author
Stewart Alsop (1914–1974) was a longtime political columnist and commentator on American affairs. A graduate of Yale University, he worked in book publishing until World War II. Rejected by the US Army for medical reasons, he joined the British Army and fought with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in Italy. He transferred to the US Army in 1944 to carry out missions planned by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—the topic of his book Sub Rosa, written with OSS compatriot Thomas Braden. He was awarded the Croix de Guerre with palm for his work on wartime missions in France.
From 1945 to 1958, Stewart Alsop was cowriter, with his elder brother Joseph Alsop, of the thrice-weekly “Matter of Fact” column for the New York Herald Tribune. He went on to become the Washington editor of the Saturday Evening Post and wrote a weekly column for Newsweek from 1968 until his death in 1974. His final book, Stay of Execution, traces the years—his last—after his diagnosis with a rare form of leukemia.
Thomas Braden (1917–2009) was an American journalist best remembered as cohost of the CNN show Crossfire and as the author of Eight Is Enough, which became a popular television program. A graduate of Dartmouth College, he joined the British Army and fought with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. He was later recruited by the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the World War II predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency, and parachuted behind enemy lines into Nazi-occupied France. He and his OSS paratrooper compatriot Stewart Alsop published the book Sub Rosa about their experiences.
Braden joined the Central Intelligence Agency upon its inception and in 1950 became head of the International Organizations Division (IOD) of the CIA’s Office of Policy Coordination, the “covert action” arm of agency secret operations. He left in 1954 to become a newspaper owner in California, later returning to Washington as a newspaper columnist. He also became a prominent political commentator on radio and television.
From 1945 to 1958, Stewart Alsop was cowriter, with his elder brother Joseph Alsop, of the thrice-weekly “Matter of Fact” column for the New York Herald Tribune. He went on to become the Washington editor of the Saturday Evening Post and wrote a weekly column for Newsweek from 1968 until his death in 1974. His final book, Stay of Execution, traces the years—his last—after his diagnosis with a rare form of leukemia.
Thomas Braden (1917–2009) was an American journalist best remembered as cohost of the CNN show Crossfire and as the author of Eight Is Enough, which became a popular television program. A graduate of Dartmouth College, he joined the British Army and fought with the King’s Royal Rifle Corps. He was later recruited by the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the World War II predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency, and parachuted behind enemy lines into Nazi-occupied France. He and his OSS paratrooper compatriot Stewart Alsop published the book Sub Rosa about their experiences.
Braden joined the Central Intelligence Agency upon its inception and in 1950 became head of the International Organizations Division (IOD) of the CIA’s Office of Policy Coordination, the “covert action” arm of agency secret operations. He left in 1954 to become a newspaper owner in California, later returning to Washington as a newspaper columnist. He also became a prominent political commentator on radio and television.
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