“Working at the house on Q Street, where she can relieve many of Cynthia’s housekeeping chores. Cynthia can meanwhile keep an eye on her.”
“I don’t know how to say this tactfully, Colonel,” Canidy said, “but do you understand how outraged Baker is?”
“I understand that he holds you in contempt, Dick,” Donovan said. “Perhaps even more than he holds me in at this moment. But I have a plan which will, I hope, make him come to see me as profoundly wise and sound of judgment.”
“How are you going to do that?”
“I’m going to promote him,” Donovan said.
Canidy laughed. “To what?”
“Director of recruitment and training for the OSS,” Donovan said.
“I don’t know what that means,” Canidy said.
“Just what it sounds like,” Donovan said. “Since Baker devoutly believes that we have been recruiting the wrong kind of people for the OSS, I’m going to let him handle the recruiting. It’s been taking too much of Pete Douglass’s time anyway.”
“I mean, what the hell is this ‘OSS’? What’s it got to do with us?”
“You mean you don’t know?”
“I’ve seen it on paperwork,” Canidy said. “They’re now going to pay for our purchase orders, but I don’t know who, or what, it is.”
“Well, I can’t imagine why no one has told you just who and what the OSS is,” Donovan said, smiling. “Maybe Baker decided you didn’t have the need to know. It happened three weeks ago.”
He opened his briefcase and searched through it. “I’m sure I had it in here,” he said. “It’s for my personal file.” He searched a moment more, then said, “Here it is.”
He handed Canidy a single sheet of crisp white paper:
MILITARY ORDER Copy 2 of 3
Office of Strategic Services
By virtue of the authority vested in me as President of the United States and as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, it is ordered as follows:
1. The Office of the Coordinator of Information, established by Order of July 11, 1941, exclusive of the foreign information activities transferred to the Office of War Information by Executive Order of June 13, 1942, shall hereafter be known as the Office of Strategic Services, and is hereby transferred to the Jurisdiction of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff.
2. The Office of Strategic Services shall perform the following duties:
a. Collect and analyze such strategic information as may be required by the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff.
b. Plan and operate such special services as may be directed by the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff.
3. At the head of the Office of Strategic Services shall be a Director of Strategic Services who shall be appointed by the President and who shall perform his duties under the direction and supervision of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff.
4. William J. Donovan is hereby appointed as Director of Strategic Services.
5. The order of July 11, 1941, is hereby revoked.
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Commander in Chief
“So you’re now under the Joint Chiefs,” Canidy said.
“Read that very carefully,” Donovan said. “And start thinking ‘we,’ Dick.”
After a moment, Canidy said, “I always wondered how you managed to get away with being a free agent. Military and Naval Intelligence must think you’re an interloper on their sacred preserve.”
“I’m afraid they do,” Donovan said. “But ONI and G-2 are under the Chief of Naval Operations and the Army Chief of Staff.”
“Who are under the Joint Chiefs,” Canidy said.
“Who are under the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs,” Donovan said. “So if there is any complaint about us, it has to pass through two levels of the military hierarchy.”
“And you’re not worried about the Chairman? Isn’t he going to naturally side with the brass hats?”
“No,” Donovan said. “Despite what you might have heard, Admiral Leahy and I agree far more often than we disagree. And besides, I’m sure he has drawn the correct inference from the fact that not only was he not given the right to pick the director of the OSS, he wasn’t even asked for a suggestion.”
Canidy chuckled. “I get the point.”
“That’s about as much of a blanket authority as I think anyone could get under the existing bureaucracy,” Donovan said. “It’s more, frankly, than I thought I was going to get.”