From the French and Indian Wars, to present day conflicts, opposing forces had to have two things in order to win - information and communication. Take either away from the individual forces and they will lose. History shows how the American Indian used smoke signals to communicate and scouts who watched their enemies.  During the Civil War, spies were used to gather information and runners were used to transport that information when the telegraph lines were cut. Even then, those lines were tapped, messages intercepted and reported to the opposing force. Even the Indians were aware of the telegraph and routinely cut wires to disrupt Military Communications. But until the advent of World War I, the United States did not have an organized force capable of using a system of spies and spy networks to get into the operations of our enemies.
    In World  War I, spies were prevalent, such as the infamous Mata Hari who was eventually caught and executed. Airplanes and balloons were used to watch over No Man’s Land to observe troop movements and signs of pending attacks. For the first time, airplanes were used to do flyovers of the battlefields and photography was used to take pictures of enemy troop movements and defenses. However, the common thread that tied together the information and secrets from one enemy to the other was that each used the technology of the age, but neither had an organization to organize and take full advantage of the information and use of spies to its fullest advantage.
    With the advent of World War II, a true American Hero came to the forefront of the US Military establishment. He’s a man not all too familiar to the American Public but whose name should be as famous and endearing as George Washington or George Armstrong Custer. Born on January 1, 1883, his name was William Joseph Donovan.
    He was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Irish immigrants Timothy P. and Anna Letitia Donovan.  Donovan attended St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, Niagara University. He later became a star football player at Columbia University, where he earned the nickname “Wild Bill,”  that stayed with him the rest of his life. He was graduated from Columbia Law School in 1905 and became an influential Wall Street Lawyer.
    In 1912 he formed a troop of cavalry for the New York State Militia and served in the Pancho Villa Campaign on the US-Mexican Border. Achieving the rank of Major in World War 1, Donovan organized the 165th Regiment of the 42nd Division of the 69th New York Volunteers, the infamous Fighting 69th. For his heroic actions between October 14 and 15th, 1917, Major Donovan was awarded the Medal of Honor. When the war ended he had been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, two Purple Hearts and promoted to the rank of Lt. Colonel. In all he received 15 American Medals and 14 Foreign Medals. His Medal of Honor Citation read:

LT. COLONEL DONOVAN LED THE ASSAULTING WAVE IN AN ATTACK UPON A VERY STRONGLY ORGANIZED POSITION, AND WHEN OUR TROOPS WERE SUFFERING VERY HEAVY CASUALTIES HE ENCOURAGED ALL NEAR HIM BY HIS EXAMPLE, MOVING AMONG HIS MEN IN EXPOSED POSITIONS, RE-ORGANIZING DECIMATED PLATOONS, AND ACCOMPANYING THEM FORWARD IN ATTACKS, WHEN HE WAS WOUNDED IN THE LEG BY MACHINE GUN BULLETS,  HE REFUSED EVACUATION AND CONTINUED WITH HIS UNIT, UNTIL IT WITHDREW TO A LESS EXPOSED POSITION.

    With the war over, Lt. Colonel Donovan traveled extensively in Europe meeting with many leaders, including Benito Mussolini. Donovan believed a second war in Europe was inevitable. His travels and contacts among European leaders caught the attention of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Despite their political party differences - Donovan was a Republican and Roosevelt a Democrat - their personalities were similar. Because of this, Roosevelt came to highly regard Donovan’s insights.
    Germany invaded Poland in 1939 and even though Roosevelt wanted to keep the United States neutral, behind the scenes he was quietly setting the country on a war footing. Through the recommendation of the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox, a close friend of Donovan, President Roosevelt gave him a number of important assignments, one of which was to travel to Britain as an Informal Emissary to gauge Britain’s ability to withstand Germany’s aggression.
    He met with Britain’s key officials including Winston Churchill and the director of British Intelligence Service. He returned to the United States and reported that Britain could withstand a pending war. Donovan returned home thinking that he could form an American Intelligence Service based on Britain’s Intelligence Service. The result was the birth of the OSS or Office of Strategic Services - the forerunner of the CIA.
    In 1941, Donovan was named coordinator of information, as America’s Intelligence Services were fragmented and isolated from each other. The Army, Navy, FBI, and Dept. of State all operated independently. Donovan was appointed as nominal director but due to the turf battles between the services, found himself with a monumental task. Nevertheless he began  to plan, and lay the groundwork for, a centralized intelligence program. In 1942, COI became the Office of Strategic Services. Under Donovan’s watchful eye the OSS would carry out espionage and sabotage operations in Europe and Asia, but could not operate in South America due to F.B.I Director J. Edgar Hoover’s extreme dislike of Donovan.
    Apparently the FBI was conducting operations in South America and Hoover didn’t want Donovan to interfere. The OSS was also blocked from conducting operations in the Philippines due to Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s apathy as he was the Commander of the South West Pacific Theater. As World War II came to a close in 1945, Donovan began to plan for the preservation of the OSS as a fully functional Intelligence Agency after the War. However, after President Franklin Roosevelt’s death, and with Donovan’s political affiliations, he encountered the personal enmity of President Harry S. Truman, in addition to his problems with Hoover. Apparently, he had had a dustup with Truman during The Great War, and it had never been forgotten.
    Hoover saw the OSS as an encroachment of the FBI’s expansion internationally. Then the public opinion turned against Donovan when conservative critics rallied against the OSS, referring to it as the American Gestapo.  President Truman disbanded the OSS in September of 1945 and Donovan returned to civilian life. But the secrets of the OSS were never revealed until the 1970s and 80s. Donovan had no official role in the formation of the Central Intelligence Agency. However, his prodigy, Allen Dulles, was an important part of its formation and the kind of Intelligence Operation it should be, becoming, in 1953, the first civilian, and third, Director of the CIA.
    Although he was a force to be reckoned with, he still met major opposition from the Army, Navy and J. Edgar Hoover. Truman wanted an Organization that would collect and disseminate information, but Donovan argued it should also be able to conduct covert operations. Truman wasn’t pleased but finally relented to Donovan’s ideas. The Central Intelligence Agency was then officially formed in 1947.
    After the OSS was disbanded, Donovan served as an assistant to Special Prosecutor Telford Taylor at the Nuremberg War Crimes’ Trials. There he got the satisfaction of seeing members of the Nazi Leadership brought to Justice for the murders and tortures of captured OSS Agents during the War. He was decorated one more time with the Distinguished Service Medal - the highest award his nation could bestow for  non-combat in the Military. In 1949 he was named Chairman of the newly founded American Committee on United Europe which countered the new communist threat in Europe.  
    In 1953 President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed him Ambassador to Thailand. William Joseph “Wild Bill” Donovan passed away on February 8, 1959 at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. and was interred at Arlington National Cemetery along with his Grandson who was killed in Vietnam. President Eisenhower referred to him as the “Last Hero” which later became the title of his Biography. His Law Firm of Donovan, Leisure, Newton & Irvine was dissolved in 1998. Major-General Donovan is a member of the Military Intelligence Hall of Fame.

NEXT WEEK: THE SIEGE OF ODESSA