OSS

The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the United States Foreign Intelligence Service established during World War II.

Following the conclusion of the war, President Harry Truman disbanded the agency in AD 1945. Its structure and personnel, however, proved foundational, as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), created by the National Security Act in 1947, was subsequently staffed almost entirely by veterans of the OSS.

Establishment and Structure

The establishment of the OSS was closely supported by British intelligence, with operatives such as William Stevenson, Ian Fleming, and Noël Coward providing structure, advice, and consultation. The intellectual predecessor to the OSS was known as the inquiry, which functioned as a proto-intelligence operation during the Woodrow Wilson administration.

William Joseph "Wild Bill" Donovan, the first head of the OSS, was responsible for gathering a remarkably diverse assortment of personnel. The assembled group included scholars, scientists, bankers, correspondents, tycoons, psychologists (such as Carl Jung), football stars, circus managers, circus freaks, safe crackers, lock pickers, and pickpockets.

Early recruitment phases saw the inclusion of numerous academics, sport stars like Mo Berg, and cooks such as Julia Child, alongside lawyers, business people, and criminals, reflecting a wide range of expertise and skill sets deemed necessary for the agency’s mission.

The Leadership of "Wild Bill" Donovan

William J Donovan was an archetypal figure, considering himself first and foremost an Americanist, which positioned him as a central link in promoting the ecumenism that gained prominence later. He believed religion served as a great intelligence tool, a concept that tied into the development of the agency’s religious approach.

A number of notable individuals were connected to the OSS Research and Analysis Branch (RAB or RB), one of the first elements set up with a religious focus.

These figures included Ralph Bunch, who would become the first African-American Nobel Peace Prize recipient, historian Perry Miller, filmmaker John Ford, Arthur Goldberg, and Stanley Lovell, who served as the head of OSS scientific development.

The Religious Approach and Worldview Warfare

Intelligence work within the OSS quickly incorporated discussions concerning religion, making it a pivotal tool for manipulation. This strategy was officially referred to as worldview warfare, or Weltanschauung.

The philosophy asserted that human motivations included conceptual, spiritual, or ideological factors beyond simple bodily desires, and that most of the world viewed events through some form of religious perspective.

The OSS sought to master this domain, studying various religious groups, sects, and cults not to discern theological truth, but to determine their practical utility for the requirements of the moment.

Religion was thus conceptualised as a tool for achieving American soft power and control, serving Pax Americana.

The agency focused on finding a universally translatable common core or essence among world religions—a form of Perennialism or Humanism - that could be exploited for intelligence manipulation and control.

Penetration of the Roman Catholic Church

The OSS viewed Catholicism and the Vatican as the most crucial focus of its systematic religious approach. The OSS accurately perceived the Vatican in the 1940s and 1950s as a geopolitical institution rather than strictly a religious one.

The agency explicitly modelled its religious approach, particularly post-World War II and into the Cold War, on the Roman Catholic Church, using it as a template to understand and manipulate global religions. Donovan, utilising his Roman Catholic background, cultivated critical alliances with the Vatican, establishing an intimate relationship beginning in 1942.

The relationship with the Dominican figure Father Felix Morlion was titled Operation Pilgrims Progress, which was structured as an information sharing agreement where Catholic journalists became a network of OSS informants.

Through Morlion’s publications, the agency promoted the Americanist ideals of religious liberty and democracy using Thomist principles.

Following Japan’s surrender, the continuation of intelligence relationships with high Church Cardinals and Catholic groups was implemented under the code name Snapdragon. In recognition of his efforts, Donovan was granted the papal order of Saint Sylvester in 1946.

Extraordinary schemes were devised as part of this approach, including a plan formulated by Stanley Lovell, the Director of Research and Development, to poison Adolf Hitler and Mussolini.

The scheme proposed that the Pope would then issue a papal bull, declaring the sudden affliction of blindness upon the dictators a 'Divine Omen', thereby proving the divine nature of the Roman Catholic faith. Marian apparitions were also suggested as potential schemes to combat the spread of Soviet ideology in Latin South America.

Operations in the Pacific and Psychological Warfare

During the Pacific War theater in the 1940s, the OSS concentrated on mastering Shinto and Buddhism, bringing in experts, such as D.T. Suzuki, to apply worldview warfare principles by seeking contradictions and divisions in the religious and ideological sphere.

Psychological warfare techniques deployed were tailored to local cultures. The OSS, for instance, employed Father Kondo, a French Catholic priest affiliated with Operation Pilgrims Progress, as a key source of human intelligence.

American officers found it bizarre that Japanese religion was not concerned with logical coherence. Ed Lansdale manufactured Japanese proverbs for use in psychological warfare.

OSS member Gregory Bateson proposed contaminating the Irrawaddy River with yellow dye, based on the Burmese belief that the colour portended the end of foreign occupation, intending to incite a revolt against the Japanese.

Project Windpipe represented a bold strategy to incite Islam against Japan during World War II. The plan aimed to tarnish Japan’s image among Muslims by depicting the Japanese tradition as pagan, backwards, and polytheistic, positioning the United States as the defender of religious freedom.

Specific propaganda elements included creating banners where the Japanese symbol of the Rising Sun was deliberately positioned above phraseology offensive to Muhammad, or claiming that the Emperor was the true Prophet, with the calculated goal of causing war between Islam and Shinto.