Office of (OSS) Strategic Services

Strategic Services, Office of (OSS), U.S. government organization founded during World War II (1942) to gather intelligence. It was headed by William J. Donovan, working under the authority of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. With the end of the war the agency was dismantled, its tasks being distributed to the War Department and the Department of State. In 1947 the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) became the successor to the OSS.

See also: Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).