OSS RECORDS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP72-00310R000200290015-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 9
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 20, 2006
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: February 6, 1970
• Content Type: MF

OGC 70-0219
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6 February 197(Y b ~_,'
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Central Intelligence
SUBJECT : OSS Records
1. This memorandum is for your information and is in
response to your request regarding the status and availability
of the "OSS Archives".
2. The "OSS Archives" include the records of OSS, its
predecessor, the Office of the Coordinator of Information, and
its successor, the Strategic Services Unit (SSU). These records
contain between 10 million and 14 million pages of material and
are located in CIA, the National Archives, and the Franklin D.
Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, New York. In addition, the
CIA Central Reference Service holds 143 OSS films on countries,
training, operations, and the like. Access to these records is
controlled by CIA alone or jointly with the National Archives.
Tab A presents a more detailed summary of the location, volume,
type of record, and control of access.
3. The OSS materials are still being used in the Agency.
In 1957 we started a systematic review of the OSS records and
have selected and duplicated a small percentage of these documents
for inclusion in the Clandestine Service The OSS
records are used for processing abou ueries a
week, for some of the current CIA historical program on bases and
stations overseas, and for operational and counterintelligence
purposes. For example, we are still using 201 files on China
.which were begun in OSS days and continued through SSU and CIG
to the present. These records are also used to certify creditable
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Executive Registry
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OSS service for both US citizens and foreign nationals, to respond
to requests for information from individuals formerly associated
with the predecessor organizations, to answer unclassified inquiries
from the general public, and to settle claims from heirs or relatives
of former 0SS agents.
4. Although well controlled and indexed for our current uses,
the OSS material is very poorly organized for historical research.
The TOP SECRET papers have been separated from those of lower
classification and have been filed by TS number. Other than that,
the papers are in no discernable order. The primary breakdown
of mater' ? ation is organizational,. For example,
the filesi are stored in one group of boxes.
Within these boxes e files are essentially in the same order and
contain the same papers as when the last operating unit had them.
Since there was no standard filing system, the order and titles of
files of any one component bears little resemblance to that o! any
other.
5. Before these records could be released they would have
to be screened by officers who are aware of the currently useful
and classified information in them. Although I have not been able
to get an estimate of the number of manhours involved in screening
a box of these records, it is clear that meaningful access even by
cleared outside scholars would require so much preliminary
screening by CIA personnel as to be out of the question for the
foreseeable future.
6. The vast majority of the papers would be of no historical
interest to a scholar, and even if he were given completely free
access, the sheer volume of the materials that -would have to be
searched before finding anything of historical significance would
be overwhelming. The problem would be more manageable if the
topic were limited to a single organizational unit or operation,
and if the researcher was directly familiar with the material under
consideration or had the help of someone who was.
7. From. time to time access to OSS records and information
has been granted authors and former OSS personnel to publish
unclassified articles and books. Tab B summarizes some of the
-2-
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? more important of these instances. Occasionally, students and'
scholars request information on OSS from the National Archives
and the Department of the Army. When possible, these requests
are honored with the approval of CIA.
8. There are some legal aspects of the problem of control
and access to these records worth noting. One deals with the
Freedom of Information Act which raises certain questions about
the accessibility by private individuals to some of the OSS records.
Anothe
i
r
s our responsibility -co preserve all of these documents
under the statutes on archival material. In addition, there has
been some question about the legal title to the OSS materials now
in our custody. These topics are covered more. fully in Tab C.
EDWARD W. PROCTOR
Assistant Deputy Director for Intelligence
Attachments:
Tab A - OSS Archives (location, volume, type, access control)
Tab B - Summary of Release of OSS Records
Tab C - Legal and Policy Aspects
cc: D/DCI/NIPE w/atts.
E WProctor:fbr
Distribution:.
.Original and 1 Addressee w/atts.
1 DDCI w/atts.
General Counsel w/atts.
1-DDP
- DDS w/atts.
C/RID/DDP (Mr. Little) w/atts.
Mr. Pforzheimer w/atts.
1 - ADDI w/atts.
ADDI History file w/atts.
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OSS Archives
Million
Location Pages
Access
Control
Cont
ent
CIA Headquarters 2.5-3.5
CIA (SSU) OSS Director's fil
es
RID/Archives
Some OSS personn
el, operational,
6
0-8
3
and miscellaneo
SSU records
CIA
us files
.
.
(SSU) OSS field records
25x1
OSS documents an
d studies prepared
by the Research
OSS administrativ
and Analysis Branch
e files
(personnel, finance, communications,
training, medical, logistics, etc. )
OSS operational reports -
OSS project files
Selected OSS files
71
National Archives
Washington, D. C.
1.5-2.0
National Records of the Office of the Coordinator
Archives of Information
an d CIA Records of the Research and Analysis
Branch, OSS
Records of the Interdepartmental
Committee for the Acquisition of
Foreign Publications
Conversations with foreigners on postwar
problems in foreign countries
(San Francisco, 1945)
Franklin D. Roosevelt 0.03 CIA Correspondence between FDR and
Library ("closed" section)
_ General Donovan
OSS reports, - studies, and miscellaneous
documents sent to the White House
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Summary of Release of OSS Records
For a time immediately after World War II certain of the
OSS records were made available for unclassified publication.
General Donovan and others felt that the story of OSS should be
told publicly, and at least 181 different OSS reports and documents
on key operations were declassified and made available on request
to the public media. Included in this was material on Operation
Sunrise (the Italian surrender); the Jedburghs (aiding the French
Resistance); the Torch Mission (North African invasion); and
OSS activities in Siam. Some of the personnel involved were
made available for interview. Between January 1946 and October
General Donovan had maintained a set of duplicate files
and records in his private office in New York. These included
his correspondence with the White House, the JCS, State, War,'
and Navy as well as a complete file of R&A reports and other
working papers, classified through TOP SECRET. Following
his death in 1959, these papers were taken into CIA custody,
although technically they are still the property of the Donovan
estate His heirs partners commissioned
Ito write a biography of Donovan. rrange-
ments were made for the author to have full access to the OSS
records, subject to CIA security approval and declassification
of material for inclusion in the book. On CIA initiative this
arrangement was canceled during the McCone period. Access
to Donovan's OSS papers we -- onovan
estate--was later granted to (formerly
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25X1
25X1
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Nve
~.~
the OSS Executive Officer) to write a biography. This has been
completed; and the book, Donovan of OSS, is to be published
this month. None of the classified material in the Donovan
papers we hold was used in the book.
Classified material from "OSS Archives" on the surrender
of German troops in Italy was made available to Mr. Dulles by
the Director in 1964, and the necessary material was declassified
for his book, The Secret Surrender. Information from official
OSS documents in British hands was published in SOE in France
by Michael Foot (1966), a volume in the official British History
of the Second World War. There is no record that permission
to use this material was requested by the British.
Copies of some OSS reports on the French Resistance have
also been furnished to the semi-official Comite d'Histoire de la 2e
Guerre Mondiale in Paris in response to an official request through
the French Embassy in Washington.
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TabC
Legal and Policy Aspects
The Freedom of Information Act
The Freedom of Information Act of 1966 (effective 4 July 1967)
creates certain problems. The basic intent of the Act is to require
every federal agency, on request for identifiable records, to make
them available to any person requesting them and thus to prevent .
Government agencies from unjustifiably withholding information that
should be reasonably available to a person having some basis for
seeking it. The Act makes provision to exempt from its terms
information which should be kept secret "in the interest of the
national defense or foreign policy". This would appe .r to exempt
our classified OSS archives from its provisions. Also exempted
are personnel and medical files, as release would constitute a
"clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy", and investigatory
files of a security nature.
The General Counsel advises that in his opinion to give access
to the "OSS Archives" to certain people and not to others requesting
the same privilege, cannot be successfully challenged under this Act,
provided we are dealing with classified records and appropriate
security clearances, It should be noted that there is a suit presently
pending in California under the Freedom of Information Act in which
the plaintiff seeks to gain access to certain OSS records in possession
of the Army. The plaintiff seeks a ruling that the Freedom of
Information Act authorizes the court to review the validity of the
classification of the documents -rather than to accept the executive
determination thereon. While the Federal District Court has ruled
against the plaintiff in this case, the General Counsel states that
we cannot be sure of the outcome until the pending appeal has been
decided. The General Counsel also notes that there are a substantial
number of papers in the "OSS Archives" which, if made public, could
be seriously embarrassing or damaging to people still living, and
about whom certain types of information probably cannot be excluded
under the exclusion given to personnel or security files under the
Act.
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Archival Aspects of the OSS Records
A good deal of the material in the OSS records represents
material within the meaning of the statutes bearing on archival
material, and much of it, except for duplicates, cannot be destroyed
under the provisions of those laws. While the National Archives
cannot tell us to give access of this material, they do exercise some
control over, its ultimate destiny. For instance, our recent request
to destroy wartime photographs of no use to us was denied by the
National Archives.
Legal Title to OSS Records
For some time there was doubt about who had legal title to
the OSS records in our custody. Following the dissolution of OSS
in October 1945, these records along with the operational and
administrative units of OSS were transferred to the War Department
and placed under the Assistant Secretary of War.
After the creation of CIG, the Secretary of War ordered that
the SSU records required by the Director of Central Intelligence
were to be transferred to the Office of the Secretary of War and
"placed under the operational control of the Director of Central
Intelligence". When SSU was liquidated as an operating entity in
October 1946, its personnel, property, supplies, and equipment
were transferred to CIG, but its records were not specifically
mentioned in.connection with the transfer. (There is some
undocumented recollection that in 1946, when Admiral Leahy,
Chief of Staff to President Truman, ordered an official OSS history
prepared, SSU did not have the funds for this project, and it may
have been funded by the JCS under whose jurisdiction OSS had
originally been placed.) There is some recollection that the title
to the records was left "deliberately fuzzy" for jurisdictional reasons
of the time.
On 30 January 1952, Mr. Houston addressed a memorandum
to the DDCI regarding Control of OSS Records. In it he concluded:
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"In view of the foregoing, it is our opinion
that there has been no transfer of title, in legal
concept, of the OSS records from the Department
of Army to CIA but that full operational control,
including release of information, has been granted
to CIA by the Department of the Army. As a
practical matter, we believe the records could
be authenticated as SSU records by either CIA.
or the Army depending on what is desired in any
one case. In the past, releases or clearances
through the Army have been handled by the Army ...
On 2 May 1964, following full coordination with DDP components,
the Director of Security, and the.General Counsel, Mr. Kirkpatrick,
as Executive Director, wrote the Interdepartmental Committee on
Internal Security that:
"... the classified data produced by this
Agency from the US Government and disseminated
within the Government, on a need-to-know basis,
cannot be released outside those confines and
this Agency has no program for such releases.
As custodians, we must also impose these same
limitations upon the records of our predecessor
organizations (OSS, SSU, and CIG), wherever
such records might be held. "
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