Download or read book The Office of Strategic Services and Italian Americans written by Salvatore J. LaGumina and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-10-05 with total page 189 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the contributions of Italian Americans employed by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. Italian Americans fluent in Italian language and customs became integral parts of intelligence operations working behind enemy lines. These units obtained priceless military information that significantly helped defeat the Axis. They parachuted into frozen mountains tops to link up with Italian guerilla units in northern Italy or hovered in small patrol torpedo boats and row boats across the Mediterranean Sea in pitch black darkness to destroy railroad junctions.
Download or read book Office of Strategic Services 1942 45 written by Eugene Liptak and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-02-20 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Office of Strategic Services, the forerunner of the CIA, was founded in 1942 by William 'Wild Bill' Donovan under the direction of President Roosevelt. Agents were enlisted from both the armed services and civilians to produce operational groups specialising in different foreign areas including Italy, Norway, Yugoslavia and China. In 1944 the number of men and women working in the service totalled nearly 13,500. This intriguing story of the origins and development of the American espionage forces covers all of the different departments involved, with a particular emphasis on the courageous teams operating in the field. The volume is illustrated with many photographs, including images from the film director John Ford who led the OSS Photographic Unit and parachuted into Burma in 1943.
Download or read book The Office of Strategic Services written by Michael Warner and published by . This book was released on 2005-06 with total page 51 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) left a legacy of daring & innovation that has influenced American military & intelligence thinking since World War II. OSS owed its successes to many factors, but most of all to the foresight & drive of William J. Donovan, who built & held together the office's divergent missions & personalities. Today's CIA derives a significant institutional & spiritual legacy from OSS. This concise history describes some of the important components of OSS & highlights some of its significant missions & personalities. Chapters: COI Came First; Who Was OSS?; Research & Analysis; Special Operations; Secret Intelligence; X-2; Weapons & Spy Gear; OSS in Asia; An End & a Beginning; & Suggested Readings. Illus.
Download or read book OSS written by Richard Harris Smith and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2005-08-01 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The best book about America’s first modern secret service.” --Washington Post Book World In the months before World War II, FDR prepared the country for conflict with Germany and Japan by reshuffling various government agencies to create the Office of Strategic Services--America’s first intelligence agency and the direct precursor to the CIA. When he charged William (“Wild Bill”) Donovan, a successful Wall Street lawyer and Wilkie Republican, to head up the office, the die was set for some of the most fantastic and fascinating operations the U.S. government has ever conducted. Author Richard Harris Smith, himself an ex-CIA hand, documents the controversial agency from its conception as a spin-off of the Office of the Coordinator for Information to its demise under Harry Truman and reconfiguration as the CIA. During his tenure, Donovan oversaw a chaotic cast of some ten thousand agents drawn from the most conservative financial scions to the country’s most idealistic New Deal true believers. Together they usurped the roles of government agencies both foreign and domestic, concocted unbelievably complicated conspiracies, and fought the good fight against the Axis powers of Germany and Japan. For example, when OSS operatives stole vital military codebooks from the Japanese embassy in Portugal, the operation was considered a success. But the success turned into a flop as the Japanese discovered what had happened, and hastily changed a code that had already been decrypted by the U.S. Navy. Colorful personalities and truly priceless anecdotes abound in what may arguably be called the most authoritative work on the subject.
Download or read book The Boston Italians written by Stephen Puleo and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this lively and engaging history, Stephen Puleo tells the story of the Boston Italians from their earliest years, when a largely illiterate and impoverished people in a strange land recreated the bonds of village and region in the cramped quarters of the North End: Sicilians lived next to Sicilians, Avellinesi among Avellinesi, and so on. Focusing on this first and crucial Italian enclave in Boston, Puleo describes the experience of Boston's Italian immigrants as they battled poverty, illiteracy, and prejudice (Italians were lynched more often than members of any other ethnic group except African Americans); explains their transformation into Italian Americans during the Depression and World War II; and chronicles their rich history in Boston up to the present day. He tells much of the story from the perspective of the Italian leaders who guided and fought for their people's progress, reacquainting readers with pivotal historical figures like James V. Donnaruma, founder of the key North End newspaper "La Gazetta" (now the English-language "Post Gazette"), and politician George A. Scigliano. The book's final section is devoted to interviews with today's influential Boston Italian Americans, including Thomas M. Menino, the city's first Italian American mayor. The story of the Boston Italians is among America's most important, vibrant, and colorful sagas, and necessary reading for anyone seeking to understand the heritage of this ethnic group.
Download or read book Italianness and Migration from the Risorgimento to the 1960s written by Stéphane Mourlane and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-03-11 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited collection explores the notion of Italianness - or Italianità – through migration history. It focuses on the interaction between Italians circulating around the world, and their relationship with Italy from a political and cultural perspective. Answering the important question of how migration affects Italianness, the authors explore the ways in which migrants retained their Italian culture, customs and practices during and after their travels. Spanning a long period from the Risorgimento up until the 1960s, the book sheds light on the institutions and social structures that contributed to the construction of cultural links between Italian migrants and their country of origin. Not only broad in its temporal scope, the volume covers a wide geographic area, examining the lives of Italian migrants in North America, South America, Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East. Bringing together a wealth of research on Italians, alongside the different migratory routes taken by these men and women, this book provides new insights into Italian culture and seeks to strengthen our understanding of Italian migration history.
Download or read book OSS written by Richard Harris Smith and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Secret War written by George C. Chalou and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 1995-12 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The proceedings of the first major scholarly conference on the OSS, which was in existence from 1941 through 1945. Includes 24 papers presented by veterans and historians of the OSS. Offers new insights into the activities and importance of the U.S.'s first modern national intelligence agency. Discusses: the U.S. on the brink of war; the operations of the OSS at the headquarters level and in the field throughout Western Europe, the Balkans, and Asia. Also explores the legacy of the OSS. Contributors include: Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., William Colby, Walt W. Rostow, Robin Winks, and Aline, Countess of Romanones.
Download or read book The Routledge History of Italian Americans written by William Connell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-27 with total page 915 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Routledge History of Italian Americans weaves a narrative of the trials and triumphs of one of the nation’s largest ethnic groups. This history, comprising original essays by leading scholars and critics, addresses themes that include the Columbian legacy, immigration, the labor movement, discrimination, anarchism, Fascism, World War II patriotism, assimilation, gender identity and popular culture. This landmark volume offers a clear and accessible overview of work in the growing academic field of Italian American Studies. Rich illustrations bring the story to life, drawing out the aspects of Italian American history and culture that make this ethnic group essential to the American experience.
Download or read book Managing Migration in Italy and the United States written by Lauren Braun-Strumfels and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2023-12-31 with total page 222 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Managing Migration in Italy and the United States shows how the development of gatekeeping in the United States and Italy laid the groundwork for immigration restriction worldwide at the turn of the twentieth century. The volume brings together European and American scholars, many for the first time, effectively crossing national and disciplinary boundaries. Using archives on both sides of the Atlantic, the authors explore the rise of immigration restriction and the attendant growth of the bureaucracy to regulate migration through the lens of migration studies, transnational history, and diplomatic and international history. The essays contribute to recent scholarship on the global repercussions of immigration restriction and the complex web of interactions created by limits on mobility. Managing Migration brings to light Italy’s important role in the establishment of international border controls promoted by the United States and expands the chronology of restriction from its origins to the present.
Download or read book The OSS and CIA written by Charles River Editors and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2019-04-29 with total page 58 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *Includes pictures *Includes a bibliography for further reading "The Work of a Nation. The Center of Intelligence." When people think about the Second World War, they seldom think in terms of silence and small acts. This was a war in which the industry of entire nations was rearranged to feed fighting, and it was fought on a scale in which battles could include hundreds of thousands of combatants. Whole cities and populations were destroyed, with millions of casualties occurring at places like Leningrad. But World War II was also a conflict in which modern covert operations first hit their stride. From the jungles of Burma to the streets of Paris, spies, saboteurs, and commandos carried out missions built on secrecy and cunning. Precise, self-contained operations could be as important to the outcome of the war as acts of massive destruction, whether it involved targeted assassinations, sabotaging key logistics, or counterintelligence to break up the enemy's own rings. At the time, most of these operations were hidden from the public since that was the only way they could be successfully carried out, but in the years since, stories about various missions have emerged. They paint a picture of incredible courage and ingenuity, whether in war zones, enemy territory, or far from the front lines. Though it might be hard to believe, the Americans did not have a covert operations organization when they joined World War II, and like the British, it took them some time to realize it could be a powerful tool. As a result, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was not established until June 13, 1942, six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Voices within the Pentagon, State Department, and White House all opposed the establishment of this new and untested organization that would carry out activities normally considered unacceptable, so officials within the OSS had to fight for the very existence of the organization, battling through layers of bureaucracy to get the resources he needed and ensure its independence of action. They also worked hard to justify the use of covert tactics in warfare, to the extent that its leader, William "Wild Bill" Donovan, cited precedents that stretched back to the Bible. In time, all the hard work led to the growth of the OSS into an organization with over 13,000 staff and 40 offices scattered across the world. Its purposes were initially similar to that of Britain's Special Operations Executive, including espionage, sabotage, and intelligence assessments, but with time and experience, it expanded to include economic, psychological, and guerrilla warfare, as well as counter-intelligence work. And of course, it would all chart a path for the early days of America's most famous intelligence agency, the CIA. The OSS and CIA: The History of America's Intelligence Community during World War II and the Establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency looks at the agencies' organizational characteristics, historical inception, early Cold War growth, and its recent influence. Along with pictures and a bibliography, you will learn about the OSS and CIA like never before.
Download or read book OSS Foreign Nationalities Branch Files 1942 1945 written by United States. Office of Strategic Services. Foreign Nationalities Branch and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 458 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Documents consist of departmental memos and reports, correspondence with individuals, and press clippings and press reports which deal with American Jewish groups during 1942-1945, as well as issues relating to Palestine, Jews and Jewish refugees during World War II.
Download or read book Mission Accomplished written by David Stafford and published by Random House. This book was released on 2011-03-17 with total page 424 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In May 1945 Italy was liberated from Nazism and Fascism by the British Eighth and American Fifth Armies. By that time the Italian resistance movement had emerged as one of the strongest in Europe - crucially aided and abetted by the UK's Special Operations Executive. As what Winston Churchill graphically described as the 'red-hot rake of the battle-line' advanced bloodily up the Italian peninsula, clandestine cells in the cities and partisan bands in the countryside fought to free their country from enemy occupation and shape the politics of Italy's post-war future. Based on recently released official files, documents retrieved from other agencies, diaries, memoirs and personal interviews, Mission Accomplished provides the first ever complete and authoritative account of Britain's secret war in Italy - the heroic exploits, the larger than life participants and the extraordinary, against-the-odds achievements.
Download or read book A New Language A New World written by Nancy C. Carnevale and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2010-10-01 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of Italian immigrants and their children in the early twentieth century, A New Language, A New World is the first full-length historical case study of one immigrant group's experience with language in America. Incorporating the interdisciplinary literature on language within a historical framework, Nancy C. Carnevale illustrates the complexity of the topic of language in American immigrant life. By looking at language from the perspectives of both immigrants and the dominant culture as well as their interaction, this book reveals the role of language in the formation of ethnic identity and the often coercive context within which immigrants must negotiate this process.
Download or read book American Labor and Postwar Italy 1943 1953 written by Ronald L. Filippelli and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 1989 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: American, Labor, Postwar Italy, migration.
Download or read book Donovan s Devils written by Albert Lulushi and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2016-02-09 with total page 473 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The stirring, little-known story of the forerunners to today's Special Forces. The OSS—Office of Strategic Services—created under the command of William Donovan, has been celebrated for its cloak-and-dagger operations during World War II and as the precursor of the CIA. As the "Oh So Social," it has also been portrayed as a club for the well-connected before, during, and after the war. Donovan's Devils tells the story of a different OSS, that of ordinary soldiers, recruited from among first- and second-generation immigrants, who volunteered for dangerous duty behind enemy lines and risked their lives in Italy, France, the Balkans, and elsewhere in Europe. Organized into Operational Groups, they infiltrated into enemy territory by air or sea and operated for days, weeks, or months hundreds of miles from the closest Allied troops. They performed sabotage, organized native resistance, and rescued downed airmen, nurses, and prisoners of war. Their enemy showed them no mercy, and sometimes their closest friends betrayed them. They were the precursors to today's Special Forces operators. Based on declassified OSS records, personal collections, and oral histories of participants from both sides of the conflict, Donovan's Devils provides the most comprehensive account to date of the Operational Group activities, including a detailed narrative of the ill-fated Ginny mission, which resulted in the one of the OSS's gravest losses of the war. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade imprint, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in history--books about World War II, the Third Reich, Hitler and his henchmen, the JFK assassination, conspiracies, the American Civil War, the American Revolution, gladiators, Vikings, ancient Rome, medieval times, the old West, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
Download or read book Wild Bill Donovan written by Douglas Waller and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-02-21 with total page 482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Entertaining history...Donovan was a combination of bold innovator and imprudent rule bender, which made him not only a remarkable wartime leader but also an extraordinary figure in American history" (The New York Times Book Review). He was one of America's most exciting and secretive generals--the man Franklin Roosevelt made his top spy in World War II. A mythic figure whose legacy is still intensely debated, "Wild Bill" Donovan was director of the Office of Strategic Services (the country's first national intelligence agency) and the father of today's CIA. Donovan introduced the nation to the dark arts of covert warfare on a scale it had never seen before. Now, veteran journalist Douglas Waller has mined government and private archives throughout the United States and England, drawn on thousands of pages of recently declassified documents, and interviewed scores of Donovan's relatives, friends, and associates to produce a riveting biography of one of the most powerful men in modern espionage. William Joseph Donovan's life was packed with personal drama. The son of poor Irish Catholic parents, he married into Protestant wealth and fought heroically in World War I, where he earned the nickname "Wild Bill" for his intense leadership and the Medal of Honor for his heroism. After the war he made millions as a Republican lawyer on Wall Street until FDR, a Democrat, tapped him to be his strategic intelligence chief. A charismatic leader, Donovan was revered by his secret agents. Yet at times he was reckless--risking his life unnecessarily in war zones, engaging in extramarital affairs that became fodder for his political enemies--and he endured heartbreaking tragedy when family members died at young ages. Wild Bill Donovan reads like an action-packed spy thriller, with stories of daring young men and women in his OSS sneaking behind enemy lines for sabotage, breaking into Washington embassies to steal secrets, plotting to topple Adolf Hitler, and suffering brutal torture or death when they were captured by the Gestapo. It is also a tale of political intrigue, of infighting at the highest levels of government, of powerful men pitted against one another. Donovan fought enemies at home as often as the Axis abroad. Generals in the Pentagon plotted against him. J. Edgar Hoover had FBI agents dig up dirt on him. Donovan stole secrets from the Soviets before the dawn of the Cold War and had intense battles with Winston Churchill and British spy chiefs over foreign turf. Separating fact from fiction, Waller investigates the successes and the occasional spectacular failures of Donovan's intelligence career. It makes for a gripping and revealing portrait of this most controversial spymaster.
