← Back to the front page

Heroes from History People Really Don’t Appreciate Enough

Khalid Elhassan November 10, 2020 32 min

William Colby - William J. Donovan — William Colby (oak leaves on cap) with OSS personnel and Norwegian Resistance members in Norway. Special Operations

14. The “Surprise, Kill, and Vanish” Ivy Leaguers

General William Donovan reviewing an OSS operation group before its deployment overseas. Wikimedia

The CIA’s predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was created in June, 1942 to collect and analyze strategic intelligence, and to carry out “special activities”. Operating under the overall command of America’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the OSS was headed by William “Wild Bill” Donovan, a WWI Medal of Honor winner and personal friend of FDR.

Like FDR (and William Colby), OSS chief William Donovan was an Ivy Leaguer and Columbia Law School alumnus. He saw to it that his organization recruited heavily from Ivy League circles. Colby, with Princeton and Columbia on his resume, an international background, a thirst for adventure, and a qualified parachutist with demolition training, was just the type the OSS was looking for. He was accepted into the organization in 1943. Colby received intensive training in guerrilla tactics to operate as a “Jedburgh” – OSS agents who worked with resistance forces in occupied Europe, and whose motto was “Surprise, Kill, and Vanish“.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.