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Studies in Intelligence Vol. 69, No. 4 (Extracts, December 2025)

Review: Defining the Mission: The Development of US Strategic Military Intelligence up to the Cold War

Dr. Scott A. Moseman (University of Kansas Press, 2025), 279 pages.

The reviewer: David Welker, a CIA historian.

Defining the Mission: The Development of US Strategic Military Intelligence up to the Cold War

Every intelligence officer surely knows that the path to CIA’s creation was paved by World War II’s Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and many are familiar with the IC’s early forebears like George Washington’s Revolutionary War Culper Ring and the Civil War’s Bureau of Military Information. By comparison, fewer of today’s intelligence officers are likely to know much about US intelligence efforts in between. Fortunately, Scott Moseman’s new volume nicely fills that gap.

Download PDF to read complete review (2 pages).