Office of Strategic Services

Office of Strategic Services
	OSS insignia
Agency overview
Formed	June 13, 1942
Preceding agency	Coordinator of Information;
Dissolved	October 1, 1945
Superseding agencies	Central Intelligence Agency; Department of State, Bureau of Intelligence and Research; Central Intelligence Group; Strategic Services Unit; United States Army Special Forces;
Employees	13,000 estimated
Agency executives	William J. Donovan, Director of Strategic Services; G. Edward Buxton Jr., Assistant Director of Strategic Services; Millard Preston Goodfellow, Deputy Director of Special Operations; David K. E. Bruce, Chief of OSS/Europe; Garland H. Williams, Deputy Director of Training and Facilities; John Magruder, Deputy Director of Secret Intelligence; Stanley Platt Lovell, Deputy Director of Research and Development Branch; James R. Murphy, (SAINT) Chief of X-2 Counterintelligence Branch;

The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the second-ever non-departmental civilian intelligence agency of the United States. It was formed during World War II, second chronologically only to its direct predecessor, the Office of the Coordinator of Information (COI). The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branches of the United States Armed Forces. Other OSS functions included the use of propaganda, subversion, and post-war planning.

The OSS was dissolved a month after the end of the war. Intelligence tasks were soon resumed and carried over by its successors, the Strategic Services Unit (SSU), the Department of State's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), the Central Intelligence Group (CIG), the intermediary precursor to the independent Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the United States Army Special Forces, colloquially known as the "Green Berets".

On December 14, 2016, the organization was collectively honored with a Congressional Gold Medal.