COLUMBIA
LIBRARY
COLUMNS
 

A Master Spy's Espionage Collection

RICHARD B. IVIORRIS
 

After World War II, the master spy, Alajor General
/=^i William H. ("Wild Bill") Donovan, returned to his
-4- JA. busy law practice, having organized and headed the
OSS, that legendary "cloak-and-dagger" operation, whose feats
behind enemy lines have provided countless themes for spy stories
and TV series. Con\'inced of the importance not only of the
espionage and sabotage sides of his complex and secret operation,
but also of the research and analysis carried out by his agency, he
strove to alert the nation to the need for systematic intelligence
planning and organization. He was determined to show that intel¬
ligence operations had played a meaningful role in military and
diplfiniatic decision-making from the beginning of our national
history and were by no means alien to the American tradition.

Unfortunately General Donovan did not live to complete the
huge task he had set himself or to give to the historical working-
papers that were gathered for liim the stamp of organizing genius
and special st\de that \\'as his own. Very recently the Donovan
Papers have been turned over to the Columbia Libraries' Special
Collections Department by the General's widow, and already
the\' have draw n a flock of researcliers, ranging from professional
historians to fiction \\ titers. What is being turned up will indu¬
bitably contribute to a deeper understanding of the role of intel¬
ligence in the conduct of the War of the American Revolution
as it was conducted on both sides of the Atlantic.