Abstract
This article examines the World War II conflict between William J. Donovan, the founder of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), and J. Edgar Hoover, the legendary Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Their struggle for control of U.S. foreign intelligence contained the seeds of tension that later arose between the FBI and the CIA. The article explores both their bureaucratic rivalry and their contrasting concepts of intelligence gathering. Bureaucratically, Hoover held the advantage. His political base was far more secure than Donovan's, and he was, therefore, able to protect the FBI from OSS encroachment into domestic intelligence. But in the field of foreign intelligence, Hoover was at a disadvantage. His stress upon fact-finding and exposure differed sharply with Donovan's emphasis upon strategic intelligence, analysis and covert action. Thus, Hoover and the FBI were ill-suited for the complexities of global intelligence. Both men also clashed over such issues as the role of domest...
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