OSS Files

August 14, 2008: The National Archives made public the personnel files of thousands who spied for the United States' Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. Among them: famed chef Julia Child, baseball player Moe Berg, actor Sterling Hayden, historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. and Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg.¹

Records show nearly 24,000 operatives worked for the vast spy network managed by the OSS. The OSS, created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, was the precursor of the CIA.²

Fast Facts

1. National Archives released more than 35,000 top-secret personnel files of OSS agents in August 2008¹
2. Archives also released 750,000 documents on the spy system²
3. OSS was the United States' first centralized intelligence effort¹
4. President Franklin D. Roosevelt created the OSS during World War II²
5. OSS was established on June 12, 1942; dismantled in 1945^{3 4}

Notable OSS Members

In addition to Julia Child and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., other notable names mentioned in the OSS files include author Earnest Hemingway's son, John Hemingway, President Theodore Roosevelt's sons Quentin and Kermit Roosevelt and Miles Copeland, the father of The Police drummer Stewart Copeland.²

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