LETTER TO MY DEAR GENERAL DONOVAN: FROM HARRY S. TRUMAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00610R000100130010-2
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 5, 2002
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: September 10, 1945
• Content Type: LETTER

Approved For Release 2002/08/21 : CIA-RDP90-0061 OR0001001300) 0
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My. dear General Donovan:
I appreciate very much the work which you and your staff
undertook, beginning prior to the Japanese surrender, to liqui-
date those wartime activities of the Office of Strategic Ser-
vices which will not be needed in time of peace.
Timely steps should also be taken to conserve those resources
and skills daveloped within your organization which are vital to
our peacetime purposes.
Accordingly, I have today directed, by Executive order.
that the activities of the Research and Analysis Branch and
the Presentation Branch of the Office of Strategic Services
be transferred to the State Department. This transfer, which
is effective as of October 1, 1945, represents the beginning
of the development of a coordinated system of foreign inteIIJ-
gence within the permanent framework of the Government.
Consistent with the foregoing, the Executive order provides
for the transfer of the remaining activities of the Office of
Strategic Services to the Gar Department; for the abolition of
the Office of Strategic Services; and for the continued orderly
liquidation of some of the activities of the Office without
interrupting other services of a military nature the need for
which will continue for some time,
I want to take this occasion to thank you for the capable
leadership you have brought to a vital wartime activity in your
capacity as Director of Strategic Services. You may well find
satisfaction in the achievements of the Office and take pride
in. your own contribution to them. These are in themselves
large rewards. Great additional reward for your efforts should
lie in the knowledge that the peacetime intelligence services
of the Government are being erected on the foundation of the
facilities and resources mobilized through the Office of
Strategic Services during the war.
Sincerely yours,
HARRY S. TRU MAN
Approved For Release 2002/08/21 : CIA-RDP90-0061 OR000100130010-2