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The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare
John Lisle reveals the untold story of the OSS Research and Development Branch― The Dirty Tricks Department ―and its role in World War II.
In the summer of 1942, Stanley Lovell, a renowned industrial chemist, received a mysterious order to report to an unfamiliar building in Washington, D.C. When he arrived, he was led to a barren room where he waited to meet the man who had summoned him. After a disconcerting amount of time, William “Wild Bill” Donovan, the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), walked in the door. “You know your Sherlock Holmes, of course,” Donovan said as an introduction. “Professor Moriarty is the man I want for my staff … I think you’re it.”
Following this life-changing encounter, Lovell became the head of a secret group of scientists who developed dirty tricks for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA. Their inventions included bat bombs, suicide pills, fighting knives, silent pistols, and camouflaged explosives. Moreover, they forged documents for undercover agents, plotted the assassination of foreign leaders, and performed truth drug experiments on unsuspecting subjects.
Based on extensive archival research and personal interviews, The Dirty Tricks Department tells the story of these scheming scientists, explores the moral dilemmas that they faced, and reveals their dark legacy of directly inspiring the most infamous program in CIA history: MKULTRA.
In the summer of 1942, Stanley Lovell, a renowned industrial chemist, received a mysterious order to report to an unfamiliar building in Washington, D.C. When he arrived, he was led to a barren room where he waited to meet the man who had summoned him. After a disconcerting amount of time, William “Wild Bill” Donovan, the head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), walked in the door. “You know your Sherlock Holmes, of course,” Donovan said as an introduction. “Professor Moriarty is the man I want for my staff … I think you’re it.”
Following this life-changing encounter, Lovell became the head of a secret group of scientists who developed dirty tricks for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA. Their inventions included bat bombs, suicide pills, fighting knives, silent pistols, and camouflaged explosives. Moreover, they forged documents for undercover agents, plotted the assassination of foreign leaders, and performed truth drug experiments on unsuspecting subjects.
Based on extensive archival research and personal interviews, The Dirty Tricks Department tells the story of these scheming scientists, explores the moral dilemmas that they faced, and reveals their dark legacy of directly inspiring the most infamous program in CIA history: MKULTRA.
352 pages, Hardcover
First published March 7, 2023
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October 7, 2023
The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle
Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare
This book was so difficult to read. WWI, WWII, and Cold War historical fiction and non fiction are genres I read often. For that reason I've known bits and pieces of things that are written about in this book and I've even read about some of the scientists, military men and woman, and spies written about in this book. But getting down into the nitty gritty of the research and testing on humans and animals that went into ideas that went nowhere and ideas that were eventually implemented was eye opening and disheartening. Wars are never over, people are always trying to enslave and kill each other.
These are men (and some women) who are brainstorming and sometimes putting their own lives on the line to think up and develop "dirty tricks" of all kinds before the enemy can develop them and use them first. These military men and scientists so often seem like kids playing with their toy science kits, seeing what might go boom. But this is serious business and nothing is forever off the table. Some men might not want this or that kind of killing but often that method gets worked on somewhere and ends up coming into play. Men in power who were ethically against certain types of warfare change their minds as time goes on.
There is a lot of detail here and a lot of vagueness. For all we learn, I know there is so much more we don't learn about, and in some ways, I wish I didn't learn what I did. At the same time, extensive Appendix, References and Notes will be leading me to read more about some of the people and events mentioned here. Not all the people who worked on projects of mass destruction or tiny inventions that allowed spies to infiltrate the enemy sat back in a safe space while others put their lives on the line. Many of these people knew the enemy first hand and put their own lives at risk to stop the enemy.
It's difficult to put this book out of my mind but all of this has been going on since man existed, in one way or another. Realizing that this is just the tip of the iceberg of what has really gone on and is going on, it's never going to be over, war is always going on even if it's behind the scenes, in ways we don't see.
Pub Mar 7, 2023
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.
Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare
This book was so difficult to read. WWI, WWII, and Cold War historical fiction and non fiction are genres I read often. For that reason I've known bits and pieces of things that are written about in this book and I've even read about some of the scientists, military men and woman, and spies written about in this book. But getting down into the nitty gritty of the research and testing on humans and animals that went into ideas that went nowhere and ideas that were eventually implemented was eye opening and disheartening. Wars are never over, people are always trying to enslave and kill each other.
These are men (and some women) who are brainstorming and sometimes putting their own lives on the line to think up and develop "dirty tricks" of all kinds before the enemy can develop them and use them first. These military men and scientists so often seem like kids playing with their toy science kits, seeing what might go boom. But this is serious business and nothing is forever off the table. Some men might not want this or that kind of killing but often that method gets worked on somewhere and ends up coming into play. Men in power who were ethically against certain types of warfare change their minds as time goes on.
There is a lot of detail here and a lot of vagueness. For all we learn, I know there is so much more we don't learn about, and in some ways, I wish I didn't learn what I did. At the same time, extensive Appendix, References and Notes will be leading me to read more about some of the people and events mentioned here. Not all the people who worked on projects of mass destruction or tiny inventions that allowed spies to infiltrate the enemy sat back in a safe space while others put their lives on the line. Many of these people knew the enemy first hand and put their own lives at risk to stop the enemy.
It's difficult to put this book out of my mind but all of this has been going on since man existed, in one way or another. Realizing that this is just the tip of the iceberg of what has really gone on and is going on, it's never going to be over, war is always going on even if it's behind the scenes, in ways we don't see.
Pub Mar 7, 2023
Thank you to St. Martin's Press and NetGalley for this ARC.
March 31, 2023
War is a dirty business. No wonder then came the idea that ‘dirty tricks’ would be necessary.
This book describes the creation of a specialty department during WWII known as the OSS (precursor to the CIA), their commission being to find unconventional methods to use on their enemies.
Regular people such as scientists and others known to have special talents in not so legal endeavors were engaged to assist in developing ‘dirty tricks’ in service to their country.
Departments such as Psychological Warfare; Documents Division; Camouflage Division among others devised some bizarre weapons and methods some of which worked and others did not. Some were used, some not.
This is the story of William “Wild Bill” Donovan and how he recruited industrial chemist Stanley Lovell to take charge of his Dirty Tricks Department. The book continues beyond WWII indicating that the Dirty Tricks Department never entirely went out of style.
The subject is definitely interesting and fascinating but the writing failed to deliver what should have been an interesting and fascinating read.
I am comparing this book with “Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat” by Giles Milton (2017) which I found to be much more readable.
This book describes the creation of a specialty department during WWII known as the OSS (precursor to the CIA), their commission being to find unconventional methods to use on their enemies.
Regular people such as scientists and others known to have special talents in not so legal endeavors were engaged to assist in developing ‘dirty tricks’ in service to their country.
Departments such as Psychological Warfare; Documents Division; Camouflage Division among others devised some bizarre weapons and methods some of which worked and others did not. Some were used, some not.
This is the story of William “Wild Bill” Donovan and how he recruited industrial chemist Stanley Lovell to take charge of his Dirty Tricks Department. The book continues beyond WWII indicating that the Dirty Tricks Department never entirely went out of style.
The subject is definitely interesting and fascinating but the writing failed to deliver what should have been an interesting and fascinating read.
I am comparing this book with “Churchill's Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare: The Mavericks Who Plotted Hitler's Defeat” by Giles Milton (2017) which I found to be much more readable.
November 16, 2022
THE DIRTY TRICKS DEPARTMENT
This was a very enjoyable and educational book about the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the precursor to the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). It highlights some of the masterminds behind its conception and development. What seemed to have begun as a mischief making and spy unit in nature, the OSS continued to develop to become far more sinister and dangerous in its methods.
The original COI (Coordinator of Information) Bill Donovan, chose chemist Stanley Lovell to head the newly created Research and Development branch of the OSS: Division 19. It was set up to invent creative ways to infiltrate the enemy through covert means during WWII, basically the “Q” of James Bond lore.
And so began the making of disguised explosives and incendiary devices; limpets, delayed timers, Bat Bombs, Javaman. New and improvised guns including the silencer and umbrella gun. And a myriad of testing experiments. Extensive training in Gutter Fighting, developing a “Mind Set” of invincibility, and Psychological Warfare to demoralize the enemy. Cloak & Dagger.
Brainstorming resulted in plans such as Operation Cornflakes, offensive smells, porn pamphlets, League of Lonely Women’s Club, Operation Fantasia which used live iridescent foxes to take advantage of cultural superstitions. Some of these ideas were implemented and others were simply filed away as being impractical or basically silly. Additional departments were set up to handle the development of documents and forgeries, camouflage and disguises.
Methods of devious warfare became much more sinister, including biological and chemical experiments, poison pills and truth drugs, and eventually MKULTRA.
The layout of the book was clear and easy to follow and it provided an excellent introduction to a wide variety of “special” forms of warfare. Each subject made me want to learn more. The Footnotes are really worth reading as they contain a lot of additional interesting information.
The extensive Appendix, References and Notes provide excellent source material for further reading.
I would like to thank NetGalley, John Lisle, and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.
This was a very enjoyable and educational book about the OSS (Office of Strategic Services), the precursor to the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency). It highlights some of the masterminds behind its conception and development. What seemed to have begun as a mischief making and spy unit in nature, the OSS continued to develop to become far more sinister and dangerous in its methods.
The original COI (Coordinator of Information) Bill Donovan, chose chemist Stanley Lovell to head the newly created Research and Development branch of the OSS: Division 19. It was set up to invent creative ways to infiltrate the enemy through covert means during WWII, basically the “Q” of James Bond lore.
And so began the making of disguised explosives and incendiary devices; limpets, delayed timers, Bat Bombs, Javaman. New and improvised guns including the silencer and umbrella gun. And a myriad of testing experiments. Extensive training in Gutter Fighting, developing a “Mind Set” of invincibility, and Psychological Warfare to demoralize the enemy. Cloak & Dagger.
Brainstorming resulted in plans such as Operation Cornflakes, offensive smells, porn pamphlets, League of Lonely Women’s Club, Operation Fantasia which used live iridescent foxes to take advantage of cultural superstitions. Some of these ideas were implemented and others were simply filed away as being impractical or basically silly. Additional departments were set up to handle the development of documents and forgeries, camouflage and disguises.
Methods of devious warfare became much more sinister, including biological and chemical experiments, poison pills and truth drugs, and eventually MKULTRA.
The layout of the book was clear and easy to follow and it provided an excellent introduction to a wide variety of “special” forms of warfare. Each subject made me want to learn more. The Footnotes are really worth reading as they contain a lot of additional interesting information.
The extensive Appendix, References and Notes provide excellent source material for further reading.
I would like to thank NetGalley, John Lisle, and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read and review this book.
February 21, 2023
Fear of missing out had numerous countries building dirty tricks departments in the lead up to World War II. They developed spies, cover stories, secret weapons, tools and lots of code-named plans to annihilate each other. So with USA. Franklin Roosevelt authorized the creation of the Office of Special Services (OSS), specifically to undermine Germany before it could undermine the USA. The Dirty Tricks Department, by John Lisle is a recitation of that history, and the larger than life characters it assembled to pull it off.
The book covers the careerspan of Stanley Lovell, a chemist plucked from obscurity to build a laboratory of dirty tricks and weapons. (Before he even accepted the job, General (Wild) Bill Donovan, a certified war maniac, started calling him Professor Moriarity). He had unparalleled freedom because no one had any idea what was needed or wanted at the time. Lovell experimented, designed, built and tested innovative weapons of all kinds, turning a golf course into a bombing range and trying out new weapons in the wilds of southeast Asia. Many became the stuff of fiction, like the L-pill made with cyanide for instant death to avoid torture. Donovan admitted to no expertise in this, and Lovell’s instructions were to build it and show him, rather than propose it and ask permission.
As the decades passed, Lovell, immersed in his mission, became oblivious of the implications of ever-increasing death machines. He became a proponent of bioweapons and poisons. He no longer cared how many civilians he took down in order to disrupt an enemy supply chain. He rationalized everything as shortening the war. The 1920s Stanley Lovell would have been mortified by the 1940s Stanley Lovell.
Fortunately, FDR would have none of it, a hugely important check on the power of the OSS. Then Truman shut it down completely. Sadly, the Cold War meant the USA had to have some sort of such service operating, so it created the CIA. The CIA wasted no paragraph of history and largely recreated the OSS, its labs, testing sites, and networks. It is fair to say the CIA is the successor to the OSS. For those who demonize the CIA, this book will explain exactly where it all came from, soon after World War I a hundred years ago.
There is an interesting side trip with Harry Anslinger, the director of the Bureau of Narcotics in the same era. He was so upset at the budget cuts for his agency in the 30s (there was a Depression going on), that he took it upon himself to create a crisis only his agency could solve. That crisis was marijuana, very little understood by white government officials. He made up all kinds of stories about its nefarious powers and damaging illnesses. It had to be banned outright, and his agency had to enforce it with arrests all over the country, assuming funds were provided. And so the USA spent the last 90 years putting millions in prison for possession of marijuana. Meanwhile, Anslinger became the go-to expert on marijuana (as a truth-inducing drug), and appears in numerous roles advising or evaluating projects at the OSS.
Lisle only barely touches on the great ironies. First of all, there was the atomic bomb. Although it was top secret, inside the beltway (as we say today), it seems everyone knew they were working on it and that it was imminent. This means all the intense efforts to develop umbrella guns, timed pencil bombs, exploding flour and bomblets of diseases carried by bats were microscopically trivial by comparison. And pointless.
Then too, there was the lingering suspicion, now fully proven, that all the spy networks changed nothing. Net zero. Assassinating a spy or blowing up a facility from the ground instead of from the air, ultimately made no difference. And for all their ever-increasingly sophisticated, secret, code-named missions all over the world, the same is true of the CIA today. If anything, they have made things worse as the embarrassing details become public knowledge. The CIA has taken upon itself the mission to demolish any government that doesn’t sufficiently toe the US line. It makes enemies, where the OSS fought them.
A third irony is that for all their intelligence efforts, the OSS never leveraged the glaringly obvious: that Germany was always short of petroleum and relied on horses to transport supplies. Beginning right with the invasion of Poland to kick off the war, horses were everywhere and critical to the effort. As Himmler said at Nuremburg, if the Americans had looked for a way to sicken horses, the war would have been a lot shorter. Instead, it invented self-attaching limpet mines and perfected forgeries the Germans lauded.
The book is an easy, fast and entertaining read, in spite of, or more likely because it is simply a collection of fun anecdotes. Good, old-fashioned stories of crazy-dedicated men and women. Some are less believable than others, but all together they make for a fine look into the machinations of the nascent American spy business. Every little story has a cited source, to the point where there are 600 endnotes in a book just 225 pages long. That’s about three stories a page, so it never gets stale.
However. All of these stories are well known. I have read them (and reviewed them) myself in other such volumes, such as 2019’s Poisoner in Chief, the story of the CIA’s Sidney Gottlieb, who basically recreated what Lovell had built, and then took it much farther. For example he masterminded a mission to give massive doses of LSD to unsuspecting American and Canadian hospital patients in the fruitless search for a truth serum. What I’m trying not to say is that there is nothing at all new here. It is a remix of the legendary stories of the OSS and American spying. Except it was in a time of war, not of peace. This, for many, has given the CIA a terrible reputation, compared to the admirable heroics of the OSS.
The way things work in this culture is that everything past is forgotten. From that angle, Lisle’s effort to rekindle these stories with this new book, is an important thing. However, for those who have read into the OSS, the CIA and their British and German equivalents will find absolutely nothing new here. There are no bombshell discoveries, no new insights and no controversial interpretations. It’s another very human, character-driven re-look at a wild time.
David Wineberg
The book covers the careerspan of Stanley Lovell, a chemist plucked from obscurity to build a laboratory of dirty tricks and weapons. (Before he even accepted the job, General (Wild) Bill Donovan, a certified war maniac, started calling him Professor Moriarity). He had unparalleled freedom because no one had any idea what was needed or wanted at the time. Lovell experimented, designed, built and tested innovative weapons of all kinds, turning a golf course into a bombing range and trying out new weapons in the wilds of southeast Asia. Many became the stuff of fiction, like the L-pill made with cyanide for instant death to avoid torture. Donovan admitted to no expertise in this, and Lovell’s instructions were to build it and show him, rather than propose it and ask permission.
As the decades passed, Lovell, immersed in his mission, became oblivious of the implications of ever-increasing death machines. He became a proponent of bioweapons and poisons. He no longer cared how many civilians he took down in order to disrupt an enemy supply chain. He rationalized everything as shortening the war. The 1920s Stanley Lovell would have been mortified by the 1940s Stanley Lovell.
Fortunately, FDR would have none of it, a hugely important check on the power of the OSS. Then Truman shut it down completely. Sadly, the Cold War meant the USA had to have some sort of such service operating, so it created the CIA. The CIA wasted no paragraph of history and largely recreated the OSS, its labs, testing sites, and networks. It is fair to say the CIA is the successor to the OSS. For those who demonize the CIA, this book will explain exactly where it all came from, soon after World War I a hundred years ago.
There is an interesting side trip with Harry Anslinger, the director of the Bureau of Narcotics in the same era. He was so upset at the budget cuts for his agency in the 30s (there was a Depression going on), that he took it upon himself to create a crisis only his agency could solve. That crisis was marijuana, very little understood by white government officials. He made up all kinds of stories about its nefarious powers and damaging illnesses. It had to be banned outright, and his agency had to enforce it with arrests all over the country, assuming funds were provided. And so the USA spent the last 90 years putting millions in prison for possession of marijuana. Meanwhile, Anslinger became the go-to expert on marijuana (as a truth-inducing drug), and appears in numerous roles advising or evaluating projects at the OSS.
Lisle only barely touches on the great ironies. First of all, there was the atomic bomb. Although it was top secret, inside the beltway (as we say today), it seems everyone knew they were working on it and that it was imminent. This means all the intense efforts to develop umbrella guns, timed pencil bombs, exploding flour and bomblets of diseases carried by bats were microscopically trivial by comparison. And pointless.
Then too, there was the lingering suspicion, now fully proven, that all the spy networks changed nothing. Net zero. Assassinating a spy or blowing up a facility from the ground instead of from the air, ultimately made no difference. And for all their ever-increasingly sophisticated, secret, code-named missions all over the world, the same is true of the CIA today. If anything, they have made things worse as the embarrassing details become public knowledge. The CIA has taken upon itself the mission to demolish any government that doesn’t sufficiently toe the US line. It makes enemies, where the OSS fought them.
A third irony is that for all their intelligence efforts, the OSS never leveraged the glaringly obvious: that Germany was always short of petroleum and relied on horses to transport supplies. Beginning right with the invasion of Poland to kick off the war, horses were everywhere and critical to the effort. As Himmler said at Nuremburg, if the Americans had looked for a way to sicken horses, the war would have been a lot shorter. Instead, it invented self-attaching limpet mines and perfected forgeries the Germans lauded.
The book is an easy, fast and entertaining read, in spite of, or more likely because it is simply a collection of fun anecdotes. Good, old-fashioned stories of crazy-dedicated men and women. Some are less believable than others, but all together they make for a fine look into the machinations of the nascent American spy business. Every little story has a cited source, to the point where there are 600 endnotes in a book just 225 pages long. That’s about three stories a page, so it never gets stale.
However. All of these stories are well known. I have read them (and reviewed them) myself in other such volumes, such as 2019’s Poisoner in Chief, the story of the CIA’s Sidney Gottlieb, who basically recreated what Lovell had built, and then took it much farther. For example he masterminded a mission to give massive doses of LSD to unsuspecting American and Canadian hospital patients in the fruitless search for a truth serum. What I’m trying not to say is that there is nothing at all new here. It is a remix of the legendary stories of the OSS and American spying. Except it was in a time of war, not of peace. This, for many, has given the CIA a terrible reputation, compared to the admirable heroics of the OSS.
The way things work in this culture is that everything past is forgotten. From that angle, Lisle’s effort to rekindle these stories with this new book, is an important thing. However, for those who have read into the OSS, the CIA and their British and German equivalents will find absolutely nothing new here. There are no bombshell discoveries, no new insights and no controversial interpretations. It’s another very human, character-driven re-look at a wild time.
David Wineberg
February 19, 2023
"Darkly funny" is a term I do not throw around loosely and especially not when referring to war. However, some ideas are so insane as to cross into the realm of hilarity. When you are a scientist testing which excrement smell would work best on enemy soldiers, you must have to laugh once in a while.
This is just one of the more tame examples of irregular warfare discussed in The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle. If this wasn't pulled from real war files, reading about a "cat-bomb" would cause a reader to shut the book and forget it ever existed. Yet, here we are.
The story itself needs no particular storytelling acumen to be captivating. The true test of an author for a book like this is to highlight the farcical elements without losing sight of the fact that many of these ideas are intended to kill. The story of the OSS of World War II, the predecessor to the CIA, has some dark elements which are not funny at all. Luckily, Lisle balances this masterfully. I never laughed (and I laughed a lot) without losing sight of the greater tragedy in the background because Lisle quickly pulls the reader back to the real stakes when the dark humor reaches a fever pitch. He also breezes through the content which makes this highly readable even for people who don't normally read history.
(This book was provided as an advance read copy by Netgalley and St. Martin's Press.)
This is just one of the more tame examples of irregular warfare discussed in The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle. If this wasn't pulled from real war files, reading about a "cat-bomb" would cause a reader to shut the book and forget it ever existed. Yet, here we are.
The story itself needs no particular storytelling acumen to be captivating. The true test of an author for a book like this is to highlight the farcical elements without losing sight of the fact that many of these ideas are intended to kill. The story of the OSS of World War II, the predecessor to the CIA, has some dark elements which are not funny at all. Luckily, Lisle balances this masterfully. I never laughed (and I laughed a lot) without losing sight of the greater tragedy in the background because Lisle quickly pulls the reader back to the real stakes when the dark humor reaches a fever pitch. He also breezes through the content which makes this highly readable even for people who don't normally read history.
(This book was provided as an advance read copy by Netgalley and St. Martin's Press.)
February 12, 2023
Great stories, easy read.
January 13, 2024
First off, I won this through a goodreads giveaway. Thank you goodreads.
This book only touches the surface of the OSS. As more documents become unclassified, more things will be learned about this organization.
This book only touches the surface of the OSS. As more documents become unclassified, more things will be learned about this organization.
April 13, 2023
World War Two produced many larger than life figures. Perhaps no one fits this category more than Colonel William “Wild Bill” Donovan who built the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) the precursor to the CIA. Donovan, a Republican was a law school classmate of Franklin D. Roosevelt and after traveling in Europe and speaking with a Nazi general he urged the president to create a centralized intelligence organization to oversee the collection of intelligence abroad. Further, he wanted this organization to engage in espionage, sabotage, propaganda, and disinformation against America’s enemies. This would lead to his appointment as Coordinator of Information in July 1941, which by June 1942 had over 600 employees at the time when Roosevelt signed an order establishing the OSS with Donovan as its head.
Once Donovan got the OSS off the ground he approached a well-known industrial chemist, Stanley Lovell to oversee the development of dirty tricks by a group of scientists which forms the core of John Lisle’s first book, THE DIRTY TRICKS DEPARTMENT: STANLEY LOWELL, THE OSS, AND THE MASTERMINDS OF WORLD WAR II SECRET WARFARE.
Lisle, a historian of science and the American intelligence community tells a fascinating story of how Lovell and his colleagues invented many items including Bat Bombs, suicide pills, fighting knives, silent pistols, camouflaged explosives, in addition to many other interesting items. They would also forge documents for undercover agents, plotted assassinations of foreign leaders, and conducted truth drug experiments on unsuspecting subjects. Lisle’s account is based on impeccable research including newly released materials, archives, and interviews. The subject itself is important as Lisle delves into the dark legacy of one of the CIA’s most infamous programs; MKULTRA. However, despite the fascinating subject matter, at times Lisle’s account comes across as a mundane listing of one invention after another. Though there are a number of interesting vignettes, overall, the topic was not developed to its potential.
Lovell and many scientists faced a moral dilemma in the conduct of their work. It became a conflict between a Hippocratic obligation and patriotism to defend one’s country. What made Lovell an important contributor to Donovan’s programs was his unique combination of business and scientific acumen. Soon Lovell would become Vannevar Bush’s aid. Bush, headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II would convince FDR to create the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) which would coordinate scientific research and devise new weapons under the auspices of Harvard president James Conant. Further, Bush convinced FDR to develop the atomic bomb.
Soon, Donovan convinced Lovell to join the OSS as Director of the embryonic OSS Research and Development Branch with a mandate “for the invention, development, and testing of all secret and other devices, material and equipment.” Lovell would travel to England to glean “dirty tricks” from the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Upon his return Lovell, with the help of Bush’s scientists created a secret division to develop all of the weapons that a spy or saboteur could possibly need in their line of work called Division 19, known as the “Sandeman Club.” Lovell would appoint Harris Chadwell, a chemistry professor at Tufts University to head Division 19. Little has been written about the R & D Branch or Division 19, a void that Lisle attempts to fill.
Lisle’s narrative is loaded with interesting characters and at times bizarre suggestions for “Dirty Tricks.” Quirky and bright inventors abound. William Fairbairn, a spritely individual who weighed about 160 lbs. but was an expert at “gutter fighting” developed in Asia worked with the SOE and American agents who he taught to defeat opponents applying any means necessary. Ernest Crocker, the so-called “million dollar nose” developed all types of “smells” from perfume to fecal matter in order to embarrass and defeat the Japanese. Ed Salinger applied psychological warfare to scare Japanese villagers and developed items included in “Operation Fantasia” taking advantage of Shinto religious superstitions to foster fear among Japanese soldiers by painting foxes white and drop them in areas soldiers frequented. “Jim, the Penman,” a federal prisoner convicted of forgery was released to assist in developing documents for secret agents, flooding markets with forged currencies etc. Another large than life figure was Carl Eifler, the head of Detachment 101, a group of men who would be used behind enemy lines. At one time General “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell, Commander of US forces in China asked him if he could assassinate Chiang Kai-Shek, the Kuomintang leader. Later he was asked if he could kidnap German scientist Werner Heisenberg. Of course, Eifler answered in the affirmative for both requests. Not all suggestions were implemented, but the people behind them were committed to their implementation. Lovell did support many eccentric ideas, but some went even too far for him. One interesting example finds Lovell entering the Oval Office and firing a suppressed .22 pistol into a sandbox while an unsuspecting FDR was at his desk to demonstrate the weapon suppressor’s effectiveness.
There are other interesting pieces of information. For example, Donovan would use the Congressional Country Club in Maryland, outside Washington as his headquarters and research facility. The golf course complex was retrofitted to bring in the necessary equipment to foster research and experiments. Laboratories and other facilities were developed to assist scientists, inventors, and various gadflies in their research from weapons, accoutrements needed by secret agents, misinformation, etc. The Research and Development Department was responsible for dreaming up covert ways to baffle, terrify, destabilize and destroy the enemy: poison pills, silent guns, gizmos to derail trains, invisible inks, truth serums, forgeries, exploding dough, disguises and camouflage were all developed for the use of O.S.S. agents operating behind the lines. Further, they would develop psychological ploys to get inside the heads of Axis decision makers.
At the outset Lovell had moral qualms concerning the types of weapons and strategies that were suggested or being developed. However, as the war continued his doubts gradually diminished. For him everything was dependent on whether a new device would end the war sooner and prevent allied casualties. The development of diverse types of pills to induce suicide, assassination, sickness, and other results interested Lovell and he strongly supported their use to protect secret agents. Lovell ran into opposition when it came to the development of biological and chemical weapons. FDR and Donovan, at first opposed their advancement arguing they did not want to be the first to deploy such weapons. Lovell argued against them, and they would finally come around as it appeared the Germans and the Japanese had no qualms developing them. Admiral William D. Leahy, the most senior American military officer, who had tremendous influence on policy remained adamant against their use until the end of the war, even rejecting the dropping of poisonous gas on Iwo Jima to save the military from storming the island and saving the over 24,000 casualties and 8,000 American deaths when the island was finally stormed by US troops. The US would develop and stockpile the weapons but did not use them.
Ben Macintyre, the author of many books on World War II espionage and other topics is correct in his April 9, 2023 New York Times book review, writing; “A grim legacy of the wartime research into truth serums was the C.I.A.’s 1950s mind-control program, MK-Ultra, in which dangerous and sometimes deadly experiments were conducted on prisoners, mental patients and non-consenting citizens.”
This somewhat enjoyable book is alarming as it offers good reasons for maintaining careful oversight in dealing with intelligence services: “Spy-scientists tend to go rogue when left to invent their own devices.”
Once Donovan got the OSS off the ground he approached a well-known industrial chemist, Stanley Lovell to oversee the development of dirty tricks by a group of scientists which forms the core of John Lisle’s first book, THE DIRTY TRICKS DEPARTMENT: STANLEY LOWELL, THE OSS, AND THE MASTERMINDS OF WORLD WAR II SECRET WARFARE.
Lisle, a historian of science and the American intelligence community tells a fascinating story of how Lovell and his colleagues invented many items including Bat Bombs, suicide pills, fighting knives, silent pistols, camouflaged explosives, in addition to many other interesting items. They would also forge documents for undercover agents, plotted assassinations of foreign leaders, and conducted truth drug experiments on unsuspecting subjects. Lisle’s account is based on impeccable research including newly released materials, archives, and interviews. The subject itself is important as Lisle delves into the dark legacy of one of the CIA’s most infamous programs; MKULTRA. However, despite the fascinating subject matter, at times Lisle’s account comes across as a mundane listing of one invention after another. Though there are a number of interesting vignettes, overall, the topic was not developed to its potential.
Lovell and many scientists faced a moral dilemma in the conduct of their work. It became a conflict between a Hippocratic obligation and patriotism to defend one’s country. What made Lovell an important contributor to Donovan’s programs was his unique combination of business and scientific acumen. Soon Lovell would become Vannevar Bush’s aid. Bush, headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II would convince FDR to create the National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) which would coordinate scientific research and devise new weapons under the auspices of Harvard president James Conant. Further, Bush convinced FDR to develop the atomic bomb.
Soon, Donovan convinced Lovell to join the OSS as Director of the embryonic OSS Research and Development Branch with a mandate “for the invention, development, and testing of all secret and other devices, material and equipment.” Lovell would travel to England to glean “dirty tricks” from the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). Upon his return Lovell, with the help of Bush’s scientists created a secret division to develop all of the weapons that a spy or saboteur could possibly need in their line of work called Division 19, known as the “Sandeman Club.” Lovell would appoint Harris Chadwell, a chemistry professor at Tufts University to head Division 19. Little has been written about the R & D Branch or Division 19, a void that Lisle attempts to fill.
Lisle’s narrative is loaded with interesting characters and at times bizarre suggestions for “Dirty Tricks.” Quirky and bright inventors abound. William Fairbairn, a spritely individual who weighed about 160 lbs. but was an expert at “gutter fighting” developed in Asia worked with the SOE and American agents who he taught to defeat opponents applying any means necessary. Ernest Crocker, the so-called “million dollar nose” developed all types of “smells” from perfume to fecal matter in order to embarrass and defeat the Japanese. Ed Salinger applied psychological warfare to scare Japanese villagers and developed items included in “Operation Fantasia” taking advantage of Shinto religious superstitions to foster fear among Japanese soldiers by painting foxes white and drop them in areas soldiers frequented. “Jim, the Penman,” a federal prisoner convicted of forgery was released to assist in developing documents for secret agents, flooding markets with forged currencies etc. Another large than life figure was Carl Eifler, the head of Detachment 101, a group of men who would be used behind enemy lines. At one time General “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell, Commander of US forces in China asked him if he could assassinate Chiang Kai-Shek, the Kuomintang leader. Later he was asked if he could kidnap German scientist Werner Heisenberg. Of course, Eifler answered in the affirmative for both requests. Not all suggestions were implemented, but the people behind them were committed to their implementation. Lovell did support many eccentric ideas, but some went even too far for him. One interesting example finds Lovell entering the Oval Office and firing a suppressed .22 pistol into a sandbox while an unsuspecting FDR was at his desk to demonstrate the weapon suppressor’s effectiveness.
There are other interesting pieces of information. For example, Donovan would use the Congressional Country Club in Maryland, outside Washington as his headquarters and research facility. The golf course complex was retrofitted to bring in the necessary equipment to foster research and experiments. Laboratories and other facilities were developed to assist scientists, inventors, and various gadflies in their research from weapons, accoutrements needed by secret agents, misinformation, etc. The Research and Development Department was responsible for dreaming up covert ways to baffle, terrify, destabilize and destroy the enemy: poison pills, silent guns, gizmos to derail trains, invisible inks, truth serums, forgeries, exploding dough, disguises and camouflage were all developed for the use of O.S.S. agents operating behind the lines. Further, they would develop psychological ploys to get inside the heads of Axis decision makers.
At the outset Lovell had moral qualms concerning the types of weapons and strategies that were suggested or being developed. However, as the war continued his doubts gradually diminished. For him everything was dependent on whether a new device would end the war sooner and prevent allied casualties. The development of diverse types of pills to induce suicide, assassination, sickness, and other results interested Lovell and he strongly supported their use to protect secret agents. Lovell ran into opposition when it came to the development of biological and chemical weapons. FDR and Donovan, at first opposed their advancement arguing they did not want to be the first to deploy such weapons. Lovell argued against them, and they would finally come around as it appeared the Germans and the Japanese had no qualms developing them. Admiral William D. Leahy, the most senior American military officer, who had tremendous influence on policy remained adamant against their use until the end of the war, even rejecting the dropping of poisonous gas on Iwo Jima to save the military from storming the island and saving the over 24,000 casualties and 8,000 American deaths when the island was finally stormed by US troops. The US would develop and stockpile the weapons but did not use them.
Ben Macintyre, the author of many books on World War II espionage and other topics is correct in his April 9, 2023 New York Times book review, writing; “A grim legacy of the wartime research into truth serums was the C.I.A.’s 1950s mind-control program, MK-Ultra, in which dangerous and sometimes deadly experiments were conducted on prisoners, mental patients and non-consenting citizens.”
This somewhat enjoyable book is alarming as it offers good reasons for maintaining careful oversight in dealing with intelligence services: “Spy-scientists tend to go rogue when left to invent their own devices.”
August 17, 2023
The Dirty Tricks Department was a somewhat decent read that had its moments, although I have to admit that I was expecting a bit more from the book going in... Despite the incredibly rich subject material, the writing here just did not reach its full potential.
Author John Lisle is a historian from Azle, Texas. He earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas, where he currently teaches courses on the history of science. He has received research and writing awards from the National Academy of Sciences, the American Institute of Physics, the California Institute of Technology, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and others. His writing has appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, Scientific American, Skeptic, Journal of Intelligence History, and Physics in Perspective.
John Lisle:
I came across this book from the author's recent appearance on Michael Shermer's podcast, which I enjoyed.
The story here centers around the progenitor of the modern-day CIA, which was called the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
Many interesting experimental anecdotes from the OSS are covered here; included "cat bombs," "rat bombs," and many other fantastical unorthodox weapons and unconventional methods of warfare.
Strangely enough, the book opens with no intro, which is a shame and a missed opportunity, as I think subject matter like this would warrant one. It also closes with no epilogue or afterword.
TBH; I was not a fan of the formatting of the book in general. I feel that it lacked continuity and cohesion. It didn't have a good flow.
********************
The Dirty Tricks Department was a decent book at times, but unfortunately the overall presentation left much to be desired for me...
2.5 stars.
Author John Lisle is a historian from Azle, Texas. He earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas, where he currently teaches courses on the history of science. He has received research and writing awards from the National Academy of Sciences, the American Institute of Physics, the California Institute of Technology, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and others. His writing has appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, Scientific American, Skeptic, Journal of Intelligence History, and Physics in Perspective.
John Lisle:
I came across this book from the author's recent appearance on Michael Shermer's podcast, which I enjoyed.
The story here centers around the progenitor of the modern-day CIA, which was called the Office of Strategic Services (OSS).
Many interesting experimental anecdotes from the OSS are covered here; included "cat bombs," "rat bombs," and many other fantastical unorthodox weapons and unconventional methods of warfare.
Strangely enough, the book opens with no intro, which is a shame and a missed opportunity, as I think subject matter like this would warrant one. It also closes with no epilogue or afterword.
TBH; I was not a fan of the formatting of the book in general. I feel that it lacked continuity and cohesion. It didn't have a good flow.
********************
The Dirty Tricks Department was a decent book at times, but unfortunately the overall presentation left much to be desired for me...
2.5 stars.
February 10, 2023
This was an entertaining read, including history that I'm sure many would like to forget. There are indeed many dirty tricks unknown to many talked about in this book. Some ideas are more well known than others, and some while reading, you shake your head, wondering how someone could honestly come up with something so idiotic and pose it to their superiors. There were a lot of great stories included that were very enjoyable to read. Others because of their nature were hard to read as it was a dark time in our history.
I recommend this book to history lovers.
I recommend this book to history lovers.
November 10, 2022
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advance copy of this book in return for an honest review.
The author reveals the untold story of the Office of Strategic Services, the intelligence agency started during World War II, which is now known as the CIA. In 1942, Stanley Lovell, a renowned industrial chemist, received a mysterious order to report to an unfamiliar building in Washington, D.C. Little did he realize his meeting with William “Wild Bill” Donovan, head of the OSS, would change his life. Lovell went on to head up a secret group of scientists in the Dirty Tricks Department, hoping to find a way to beat the enemy and bring an end to World War II. Yet just three months after its creation, German newspapers were reporting on the the secret bureau. Lovell had his work cut out for him.
Agents were trained in all matters of espionage such as lock-picking, secret writing, parachuting, radio transmission and how to blend into their surroundings. Clothing needed to match the culture they would be entering, so authentic European clothing was purchased from recent immigrants. Documentation was heavily scrutinized so it was washed, ironed, bent and folded repeatedly, walked on and aged with ashes in order to pass inspection.
The Dirty Tricks Department also worked on some not so usual weaponry. They tested bat bombs, umbrella guns, and silent pistols. Itching powder was placed on vests and inside condoms sent to the German army. There were items made to create a diversion to allow escape, and suicide pills if you were unfortunate enough to be captured. To aid resistance groups, the Department designed explosives for derailing railcars and fuel contaminants for gas lines.
The book then turns to the deeper and darker side of war: chemical, biological and nuclear warfare. The book is based on extensive archival research and personal interviews, and you can explore the moral dilemmas presented by the use of such weaponry. The book is revealing, engrossing, thought-provoking and, at times, unsettling.
https://candysplanet.wordpress.com/
The author reveals the untold story of the Office of Strategic Services, the intelligence agency started during World War II, which is now known as the CIA. In 1942, Stanley Lovell, a renowned industrial chemist, received a mysterious order to report to an unfamiliar building in Washington, D.C. Little did he realize his meeting with William “Wild Bill” Donovan, head of the OSS, would change his life. Lovell went on to head up a secret group of scientists in the Dirty Tricks Department, hoping to find a way to beat the enemy and bring an end to World War II. Yet just three months after its creation, German newspapers were reporting on the the secret bureau. Lovell had his work cut out for him.
Agents were trained in all matters of espionage such as lock-picking, secret writing, parachuting, radio transmission and how to blend into their surroundings. Clothing needed to match the culture they would be entering, so authentic European clothing was purchased from recent immigrants. Documentation was heavily scrutinized so it was washed, ironed, bent and folded repeatedly, walked on and aged with ashes in order to pass inspection.
The Dirty Tricks Department also worked on some not so usual weaponry. They tested bat bombs, umbrella guns, and silent pistols. Itching powder was placed on vests and inside condoms sent to the German army. There were items made to create a diversion to allow escape, and suicide pills if you were unfortunate enough to be captured. To aid resistance groups, the Department designed explosives for derailing railcars and fuel contaminants for gas lines.
The book then turns to the deeper and darker side of war: chemical, biological and nuclear warfare. The book is based on extensive archival research and personal interviews, and you can explore the moral dilemmas presented by the use of such weaponry. The book is revealing, engrossing, thought-provoking and, at times, unsettling.
https://candysplanet.wordpress.com/
February 7, 2023
4++
Fascinating history of US intelligence, and, yes, many of the tricks were pretty dirty
Most histories of WW II focus on the military campaigns or major weapons like the atomic bomb. The Dirty Tricks Department describes another aspect of our war effort that contributed to many of these traditional military efforts, both major and minor.
An intelligence service requires intelligence but also creativity, and this talent became obvious immediately when the service was established. After they finished their training school, new recruits were tested by being sent out to steal classified material from American defense plants or other sensitive sources. Success in these tests accomplished two goals: it showed the recruit had some desirable skills, and it uncovered weaknesses in the targets’ security systems.
I expected to read about clever and sometimes bizarre ideas, like the Aunt Jemima project that disguised explosives as pancake mix, but I was not prepared for the amount of humor in the book, such as when Lytle Adams is trying to promote a project that would send bats loaded with bombs into enemy territory and comments that he has a sure winner with his project, but the authorities are working on trying to make bombs out of tiny atoms! In addition to humor, clever ideas can produce great tools as well as failure, but it also can result in sad disasters, both for the enemy and our own side. A test of the bat project in the United States, for example, totally destroyed an administration building, a control tower, and a barracks.
There is more to intelligence than just devices, and the “dirty tricks” department also looked at things like biological and chemical weapons, truth drugs, and what kinds of precautions were needed to protect our own agents infiltrating enemy territory. The amount of thinking and detail was amazing. For example, clothing often had to be altered to provide additional pockets, and the sewing had to match the technique of the supposed country of origin, e.g., German stitches used parallel threading instead of crisscross.
This book was unfailingly interesting and entertaining, but it was also sobering. Many of the topics considered, such as the chemical and biological initiatives, disturbed me, and it was interesting to see which were controversial and which were simply accepted as necessary for our defense. Whether you are a history buff or simply enjoy hearing about clever (and sometimes lamebrained) ideas, The Dirt Tricks Department is a book you will enjoy.
I received an advance review copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher
Fascinating history of US intelligence, and, yes, many of the tricks were pretty dirty
Most histories of WW II focus on the military campaigns or major weapons like the atomic bomb. The Dirty Tricks Department describes another aspect of our war effort that contributed to many of these traditional military efforts, both major and minor.
An intelligence service requires intelligence but also creativity, and this talent became obvious immediately when the service was established. After they finished their training school, new recruits were tested by being sent out to steal classified material from American defense plants or other sensitive sources. Success in these tests accomplished two goals: it showed the recruit had some desirable skills, and it uncovered weaknesses in the targets’ security systems.
I expected to read about clever and sometimes bizarre ideas, like the Aunt Jemima project that disguised explosives as pancake mix, but I was not prepared for the amount of humor in the book, such as when Lytle Adams is trying to promote a project that would send bats loaded with bombs into enemy territory and comments that he has a sure winner with his project, but the authorities are working on trying to make bombs out of tiny atoms! In addition to humor, clever ideas can produce great tools as well as failure, but it also can result in sad disasters, both for the enemy and our own side. A test of the bat project in the United States, for example, totally destroyed an administration building, a control tower, and a barracks.
There is more to intelligence than just devices, and the “dirty tricks” department also looked at things like biological and chemical weapons, truth drugs, and what kinds of precautions were needed to protect our own agents infiltrating enemy territory. The amount of thinking and detail was amazing. For example, clothing often had to be altered to provide additional pockets, and the sewing had to match the technique of the supposed country of origin, e.g., German stitches used parallel threading instead of crisscross.
This book was unfailingly interesting and entertaining, but it was also sobering. Many of the topics considered, such as the chemical and biological initiatives, disturbed me, and it was interesting to see which were controversial and which were simply accepted as necessary for our defense. Whether you are a history buff or simply enjoy hearing about clever (and sometimes lamebrained) ideas, The Dirt Tricks Department is a book you will enjoy.
I received an advance review copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher
Read
July 3, 2023Selected interesting facts:
To pass OSS training school, trainees had to steal classified information from a defence plant or other “sensitive target” in the US without getting arrested. This was considered a win-win for helping to expose deficits in national security as well as giving trainees real-life experience.
To disguise HMX explosive, it was mixed with flour to create a product called “Aunt Jemima” - 80% explosive, 20% flour. You could bake it into bread, biscuits etc and apparently people eating them generally couldn’t tell there was anything different about the resulting bakery products.
Bombs were placed inside dead rats which were added to German coal stocks with the aim of being shovelled into boilers and blowing them up. The Germans caught on quickly but then spent so much time and manpower checking all their coal for rat bombs that it had far more impact on their war productivity than the actual explosions would have achieved if the rat bombs hadn’t been discovered.
Many bizarre plans were hatched in attempts to damage the morale of Japanese civilians. At one point, there was a plan to bomb Japanese volcano craters, hoping to make them erupt and thereby cause civilians to fear their gods were angry with them for the war.
Another plan was to produce a noxious-smelling substance and distribute it to small boys in occupied China, who would then spray it on the backsides of Japanese officers walking past to make it seem like the officers had defecated in their pants and thereby damage morale.
Operation Fantasia was yet another scheme to damage Japanese morale by painting foxes with radioactive glow-in-the-dark paint and releasing them in Japan, where it was thought local people would believe they were Shinto fox-shaped spirits that signified oncoming doom. A test run with 30 glowing foxes in a park in Washington DC did successfully scare people despite their lack of belief in magical fox spirits. Unfortunately in further tests of how the foxes might actually get to Japan, when the foxes were released to swim to shore, this washed off most of the paint and once the foxes reached dry land they licked off the rest, so this plan was abandoned. No word on whether this plan took any inspiration from “The Hound of the Baskervilles”.
Agents would frequently carry gold watches, lighters, jewellery etc as a form of escape money without having to carry lots of cash - but these were nickel-plated so they looked cheap.
To pass OSS training school, trainees had to steal classified information from a defence plant or other “sensitive target” in the US without getting arrested. This was considered a win-win for helping to expose deficits in national security as well as giving trainees real-life experience.
To disguise HMX explosive, it was mixed with flour to create a product called “Aunt Jemima” - 80% explosive, 20% flour. You could bake it into bread, biscuits etc and apparently people eating them generally couldn’t tell there was anything different about the resulting bakery products.
Bombs were placed inside dead rats which were added to German coal stocks with the aim of being shovelled into boilers and blowing them up. The Germans caught on quickly but then spent so much time and manpower checking all their coal for rat bombs that it had far more impact on their war productivity than the actual explosions would have achieved if the rat bombs hadn’t been discovered.
Many bizarre plans were hatched in attempts to damage the morale of Japanese civilians. At one point, there was a plan to bomb Japanese volcano craters, hoping to make them erupt and thereby cause civilians to fear their gods were angry with them for the war.
Another plan was to produce a noxious-smelling substance and distribute it to small boys in occupied China, who would then spray it on the backsides of Japanese officers walking past to make it seem like the officers had defecated in their pants and thereby damage morale.
Operation Fantasia was yet another scheme to damage Japanese morale by painting foxes with radioactive glow-in-the-dark paint and releasing them in Japan, where it was thought local people would believe they were Shinto fox-shaped spirits that signified oncoming doom. A test run with 30 glowing foxes in a park in Washington DC did successfully scare people despite their lack of belief in magical fox spirits. Unfortunately in further tests of how the foxes might actually get to Japan, when the foxes were released to swim to shore, this washed off most of the paint and once the foxes reached dry land they licked off the rest, so this plan was abandoned. No word on whether this plan took any inspiration from “The Hound of the Baskervilles”.
Agents would frequently carry gold watches, lighters, jewellery etc as a form of escape money without having to carry lots of cash - but these were nickel-plated so they looked cheap.
Read
March 6, 2023The original leader of the OSS was Bill Donovan, about whom I've read other books. This was the first time I also got a good look at chemist Stanley Lovell, who was told it was his job to be the Professor Moriarty of the OSS, something he took on with apparently gleeful enthusiasm.
This pair led a team of oddballs, science nerds, and determined experimenters to help out the war effort.As I was reading that, I kept thinking back to my teenage reading of Ian Fleming's James Bond yarns, and the trickster items like poison delivery systems (pens, etc), harmless items that turn into bombs, surreptitious cameras, and using bats and other creatures to carry weapons to blow up.
Lisle is clearly having fun writing about the The Dirty Tricks Department, their failures as well as their successes, so much fun that one could overlook the astounding amount of research he did. Well over a quarter of the book is citations.
I think I would have enjoyed this book more fully fifty years ago, before I was really aware of the fallout of such dirty tricks, especially against harmless bystanders. The glee with which these people played around with destructive materials reminds me of the glee with which the atom bomb developers played around with terrible forces of destruction. Brings home to me how our curious monkey forebears are not very far from us, are they? Especially in men. Though there were women on the team as well.
This pair led a team of oddballs, science nerds, and determined experimenters to help out the war effort.As I was reading that, I kept thinking back to my teenage reading of Ian Fleming's James Bond yarns, and the trickster items like poison delivery systems (pens, etc), harmless items that turn into bombs, surreptitious cameras, and using bats and other creatures to carry weapons to blow up.
Lisle is clearly having fun writing about the The Dirty Tricks Department, their failures as well as their successes, so much fun that one could overlook the astounding amount of research he did. Well over a quarter of the book is citations.
I think I would have enjoyed this book more fully fifty years ago, before I was really aware of the fallout of such dirty tricks, especially against harmless bystanders. The glee with which these people played around with destructive materials reminds me of the glee with which the atom bomb developers played around with terrible forces of destruction. Brings home to me how our curious monkey forebears are not very far from us, are they? Especially in men. Though there were women on the team as well.
March 20, 2023
I feel like I learned a lot while simultaneously wishing I had learned more! I wish this had actually been more dense and/or detailed.
My only real problem is that I was expecting MKULTRA to be talked about a little more/earlier/alongside the main story of the OSS and not just briefly mentioned at the end of the book. Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control is probably more of what I'm looking for.
I was also reading Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War at the same time, and Bill Donovan and Carl Eifler are mentioned in that book as well, so it made for a fun little companion piece.
My only real problem is that I was expecting MKULTRA to be talked about a little more/earlier/alongside the main story of the OSS and not just briefly mentioned at the end of the book. Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control is probably more of what I'm looking for.
I was also reading Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War at the same time, and Bill Donovan and Carl Eifler are mentioned in that book as well, so it made for a fun little companion piece.
May 3, 2023
A fascinating look at the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) created in July 1941 by FDR. To stop Germany, this secret U. S. intelligence branch was to train and equip undercover agents in enemy territory. They organized resistance groups, broadcast anti-Axis radio programs in Europe, reported back locations of enemy troops, destroyed trains and bridges, rescued downed airmen, and equipped undercover agents with deadly weapons, forged documents, and disguises.
The training, inventions, schemes, and methods are detailed, impressive, and sometimes harrowing. Lisle chronicles successes, mishaps and discarded ideas. Some are humorous. Some surprising. The work required bravery, cleverness, wisdom and dedication.
In April 1945, Truman dissolved the OSS by Executive Order.
A great read.
The training, inventions, schemes, and methods are detailed, impressive, and sometimes harrowing. Lisle chronicles successes, mishaps and discarded ideas. Some are humorous. Some surprising. The work required bravery, cleverness, wisdom and dedication.
In April 1945, Truman dissolved the OSS by Executive Order.
A great read.
June 17, 2023
Title: The Dirty Tricks Department
Author: John Lisle
Release Date: March 7th, 2023
Page Count: 341
Format: Audiobook/Netgalley
Start Date: March 9th, 2023
Finish Date: March 11th, 2023
Rating: 5 Stars
Review:
Another highly educational book pertaining to WW2. There are so many things that I realize weren't taught in school. Books like these make me want to buy copies that I can read again to annotate and highlight for future references. I love learning about historical events. Especially with events that really aren't talked much about overall. This is a nonfiction novel. It's worth the read. Especially for any WW2 buff.
Author: John Lisle
Release Date: March 7th, 2023
Page Count: 341
Format: Audiobook/Netgalley
Start Date: March 9th, 2023
Finish Date: March 11th, 2023
Rating: 5 Stars
Review:
Another highly educational book pertaining to WW2. There are so many things that I realize weren't taught in school. Books like these make me want to buy copies that I can read again to annotate and highlight for future references. I love learning about historical events. Especially with events that really aren't talked much about overall. This is a nonfiction novel. It's worth the read. Especially for any WW2 buff.
March 9, 2023
Not a particularly elegant overview of the OSS, but more than made up for by the sheer number of interesting facts and stories. A fascinating, sometimes frightening chapter in military intelligence.
April 17, 2023
An entertaining and insightful glimpse behind the curtain of OSS's inner workings.
July 5, 2024
The fellows from my office wouldn't take a cigarette from me for the rest of the war.
January 29, 2023
Very informative book above the spying activities done during WWII. I learned a lot including how they made, tested, and used the various devices through the war in both theater. A little too textbook like for me but still very interesting.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.
Thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.
February 6, 2024
Pretty fun. It lacks any sort of coherent storyline, which takes some getting used to. You keep waiting for an identifiable plot to show up, and it never does. This has the effect of the book overall reading as more of a collection of related-but-not-connected essays on WW2 intelligence activities.
But I think if you read it in that way, it’s a really fun book. I learned a lot about the early days of organized American intelligence efforts, and it also serves as a kind of meditation on government-sponsored risk taking and scientific innovation. Crazy to consider how much leeway government scientists were given to just try anything and everything that might help a war effort, and how that’s changed over time.
But I think if you read it in that way, it’s a really fun book. I learned a lot about the early days of organized American intelligence efforts, and it also serves as a kind of meditation on government-sponsored risk taking and scientific innovation. Crazy to consider how much leeway government scientists were given to just try anything and everything that might help a war effort, and how that’s changed over time.
April 19, 2023
Historians debate whether Britain’s Special Operations Executive (SOE) and the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) had a material effect on the outcome of World War II. After all, they operated on the margins, behind enemy lines, never capable of mounting strategically significant missions. But later testimony from military leaders in the war effort insisted they’d made a difference. And whatever their strategic impact might have been, their activities—especially the often colorful antics of the OSS—make for great reading. Which you’re likely to conclude from the latest addition to the abundant literature about Wild Bill Donovan and his charges in the OSS, The Dirty Tricks Department. In the book, historian John Lisle peers into the record of the secret warfare waged by the OSS, revealing some of the agency’s most flamboyant activities.
CALLING FOR PROFESSOR MORIARTY
When the OSS was launched in July 1942 after a year under another name, the new agency seemed ready for war. Specialized branches sprouted in every direction. It was equipped to organize foreign resistance groups. Broadcast anti-Axis radio programs in Europe. Send spies abroad to supply information to the military. Spread misinformation to lower enemy morale. And “evaluate the flood of information that came pouring in from OSS agents and contacts abroad.”
Roosevelt and the Pentagon would soon move some of these branches to other agencies. But even what Wild Bill Donovan had at the outset wasn’t enough. “Donovan needed another branch, the most underhanded of them all, to destroy the enemy. He needed a branch that could equip an undercover agent with a fighting knife to slit a guard’s throat, an incendiary device to set a building on fire, a camouflaged explosive to blow apart a locomotive’s boiler, or a cyanide pill [for agents] to kill themselves with before being captured alive. He needed a branch that could develop and deploy all of the dirty tricks that were needed to win the greatest war in history. And he needed a scientist, a ‘Professor Moriarty,’ in his words, to oversee it.” Enter Dr. Stanley P. Lovell.
A CORNUCOPIA OF DEADLY DEVICES
Stanley Lovell was an industrial chemist with a bachelor’s degree in the field from Cornell. (He began but never finished work on a graduate degree. The “Dr” before his name came later from an honorary degree.) Lisle describes Lovell��s first encounter with the already famous head of the OSS. “‘I’m Colonel Donovan,’ the man said. ‘You know your Sherlock Holmes, of course. Professor Moriarty is the man I want for my staff here at O.S.S. I think you’re it. . . . I need every subtle device and every underhanded trick to use against the Germans and the Japanese.’ He paused, then gave Lovell his first order: ‘You have to invent all of them, Lovell, because you’re going to be my man.'” And invent them he did—although in reality the large and growing staff he recruited for the OSS’s new R&D Branch did the inventing.
Under Lovell’s direction, some of the nation’s brightest, and some of the nuttiest, scientists went to work. During the last two years of the war, the R&D staff designed and built a wide array of deadly devices. Lisle singles out the “time pencil,” which exploded after a timed delay “to ignite a wallet-sized reservoir of napalm,” and “the limpet mine, a small box of explosives that attached to the hull of a metal ship.” Oh, and the “‘Hedy,” a “device that simulated the screech of a falling bomb.” That one caused havoc when Lovell demonstrated it to the Joint Chiefs of Staff without advance warning. (They never invited him back.)
But these devices were the ones that worked. Many did not. There were explosive weapons that killed more Americans than Germans. “Bat Bombs” that attached explosives . . . yes, to bats . . . but failed to reach their targets. And other cockamamie schemes that caused Pentagon officials to raise their eyebrows—or laugh uproariously.
EVEN MORE DEADLY DEVICES
A journalistic website that covers military culture, foreign policy and defense news describes some of the other output. Among the products were “silenced pistols and submachine guns and explosives disguised as lumps of coal (‘Black Joe’) or mule turds and even [explosive] Chinese flour, which the troops called ‘Aunt Jemima.’ The flour could even be baked and eaten in an emergency. . . Other ingenious gadgets included buttons with compasses inside to aid in escape and evasion, playing cards that concealed maps, a 16mm Kodak camera in the shape of a matchbox as well as German and Japanese identity cards, rations cards, passes and counterfeit currency.” Lovell and his minions would have put James Bond’s “Q” to shame.
But Stanley Lovell and his staff didn’t limit themselves to creating physical devices. The R&D Branch also included divisions dedicated to such tasks as creating disguises for spies, developing the “legends” that shrouded their past, producing counterfeit stamps and documentation, designing camouflage clothing, introducing “stench warfare,” and training agents in vicious hand-to-hand fighting techniques. R&D Branch was a full-service organization. More fatefully, R&D brought the OSS into the realm of biological and chemical warfare as well. And Lovell began extensive research on scopolamine, a supposed “truth drug.”
CLOSE COLLABORATION WITH THE BRITISH
As Lisle emphasizes, “the R&D Branch shared many of its devices with the British SOE, but the exchange went both ways. . . One item that the SOE developed was an itching powder made from the needle-like hairs on the seedpods of the mucuna plant. On one occasion, a worker in a French clothing factory sprinkled liberal quantities of the powder on vests that were destined for the German Navy. Soon afterward, a German U-boat returned to port when its crew complained of a mysterious epidemic that had broken out among them. Another time, the itching powder was put inside German condoms. Local hospitals soon noted an uptick in reports of painful irritation during sex. And as an added bonus, the condoms had been sold at a handsome profit.”
A CAST OF ENDLESSLY ENTERTAINING CHARACTERS
The eminent chemist Dr. Stanley Lovell emerges from this account as central to the story. But The Dirty Tricks Department is not truly biographical, as the book’s subtitle might suggest. Lovell is merely first among many men in the OSS (and the SOE) whose decisions helped guide the course of his agency’s efforts in the field. In fact, much of the work Lovell set in motion proved to be impractical. However, it was always arresting and makes for great copy. Other key OSS personnel, including Wild Bill Donovan himself as well as Allen Dulles and Moe Berg, outshine Lovell more often than not. In fact, Donovan’s astonishing story alone is worth the price of the book. I learned a great deal about the man from LIsle’s account even after I’d read Douglas Waller’s excellent biography.
STANLEY LOVELL’S LEGACY
“Stanley Lovell’s most consequential legacy,” Lisle writes, “wasn’t the deadly weapons, cunning schemes, forged documents, or secret disguises that the R&D Branch created. It was the inspiration that his truth drug experiments gave to a new generation of CIA scientists who would conduct one of the most infamous programs in American history.” MK-Ultra, the agency’s clandestine experiments that administered LSD and other psychoactive drugs to unwitting subjects in the 1950s and early 1960s. A program that famously led to the death of a government biological warfare specialist named Frank Olson in 1953.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
According to his author website, “John Lisle is a historian from Azle, Texas. He earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas, where he currently teaches courses on the history of science. John has received research and writing awards from the National Academy of Sciences, the American Institute of Physics, the California Institute of Technology, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and others. His writing has appeared in Scientific American, Smithsonian Magazine, Skeptic, the Journal of Intelligence History, and Physics in Perspective.
“John lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife.” The Dirty Tricks Department is his first book.
CALLING FOR PROFESSOR MORIARTY
When the OSS was launched in July 1942 after a year under another name, the new agency seemed ready for war. Specialized branches sprouted in every direction. It was equipped to organize foreign resistance groups. Broadcast anti-Axis radio programs in Europe. Send spies abroad to supply information to the military. Spread misinformation to lower enemy morale. And “evaluate the flood of information that came pouring in from OSS agents and contacts abroad.”
Roosevelt and the Pentagon would soon move some of these branches to other agencies. But even what Wild Bill Donovan had at the outset wasn’t enough. “Donovan needed another branch, the most underhanded of them all, to destroy the enemy. He needed a branch that could equip an undercover agent with a fighting knife to slit a guard’s throat, an incendiary device to set a building on fire, a camouflaged explosive to blow apart a locomotive’s boiler, or a cyanide pill [for agents] to kill themselves with before being captured alive. He needed a branch that could develop and deploy all of the dirty tricks that were needed to win the greatest war in history. And he needed a scientist, a ‘Professor Moriarty,’ in his words, to oversee it.” Enter Dr. Stanley P. Lovell.
A CORNUCOPIA OF DEADLY DEVICES
Stanley Lovell was an industrial chemist with a bachelor’s degree in the field from Cornell. (He began but never finished work on a graduate degree. The “Dr” before his name came later from an honorary degree.) Lisle describes Lovell��s first encounter with the already famous head of the OSS. “‘I’m Colonel Donovan,’ the man said. ‘You know your Sherlock Holmes, of course. Professor Moriarty is the man I want for my staff here at O.S.S. I think you’re it. . . . I need every subtle device and every underhanded trick to use against the Germans and the Japanese.’ He paused, then gave Lovell his first order: ‘You have to invent all of them, Lovell, because you’re going to be my man.'” And invent them he did—although in reality the large and growing staff he recruited for the OSS’s new R&D Branch did the inventing.
Under Lovell’s direction, some of the nation’s brightest, and some of the nuttiest, scientists went to work. During the last two years of the war, the R&D staff designed and built a wide array of deadly devices. Lisle singles out the “time pencil,” which exploded after a timed delay “to ignite a wallet-sized reservoir of napalm,” and “the limpet mine, a small box of explosives that attached to the hull of a metal ship.” Oh, and the “‘Hedy,” a “device that simulated the screech of a falling bomb.” That one caused havoc when Lovell demonstrated it to the Joint Chiefs of Staff without advance warning. (They never invited him back.)
But these devices were the ones that worked. Many did not. There were explosive weapons that killed more Americans than Germans. “Bat Bombs” that attached explosives . . . yes, to bats . . . but failed to reach their targets. And other cockamamie schemes that caused Pentagon officials to raise their eyebrows—or laugh uproariously.
EVEN MORE DEADLY DEVICES
A journalistic website that covers military culture, foreign policy and defense news describes some of the other output. Among the products were “silenced pistols and submachine guns and explosives disguised as lumps of coal (‘Black Joe’) or mule turds and even [explosive] Chinese flour, which the troops called ‘Aunt Jemima.’ The flour could even be baked and eaten in an emergency. . . Other ingenious gadgets included buttons with compasses inside to aid in escape and evasion, playing cards that concealed maps, a 16mm Kodak camera in the shape of a matchbox as well as German and Japanese identity cards, rations cards, passes and counterfeit currency.” Lovell and his minions would have put James Bond’s “Q” to shame.
But Stanley Lovell and his staff didn’t limit themselves to creating physical devices. The R&D Branch also included divisions dedicated to such tasks as creating disguises for spies, developing the “legends” that shrouded their past, producing counterfeit stamps and documentation, designing camouflage clothing, introducing “stench warfare,” and training agents in vicious hand-to-hand fighting techniques. R&D Branch was a full-service organization. More fatefully, R&D brought the OSS into the realm of biological and chemical warfare as well. And Lovell began extensive research on scopolamine, a supposed “truth drug.”
CLOSE COLLABORATION WITH THE BRITISH
As Lisle emphasizes, “the R&D Branch shared many of its devices with the British SOE, but the exchange went both ways. . . One item that the SOE developed was an itching powder made from the needle-like hairs on the seedpods of the mucuna plant. On one occasion, a worker in a French clothing factory sprinkled liberal quantities of the powder on vests that were destined for the German Navy. Soon afterward, a German U-boat returned to port when its crew complained of a mysterious epidemic that had broken out among them. Another time, the itching powder was put inside German condoms. Local hospitals soon noted an uptick in reports of painful irritation during sex. And as an added bonus, the condoms had been sold at a handsome profit.”
A CAST OF ENDLESSLY ENTERTAINING CHARACTERS
The eminent chemist Dr. Stanley Lovell emerges from this account as central to the story. But The Dirty Tricks Department is not truly biographical, as the book’s subtitle might suggest. Lovell is merely first among many men in the OSS (and the SOE) whose decisions helped guide the course of his agency’s efforts in the field. In fact, much of the work Lovell set in motion proved to be impractical. However, it was always arresting and makes for great copy. Other key OSS personnel, including Wild Bill Donovan himself as well as Allen Dulles and Moe Berg, outshine Lovell more often than not. In fact, Donovan’s astonishing story alone is worth the price of the book. I learned a great deal about the man from LIsle’s account even after I’d read Douglas Waller’s excellent biography.
STANLEY LOVELL’S LEGACY
“Stanley Lovell’s most consequential legacy,” Lisle writes, “wasn’t the deadly weapons, cunning schemes, forged documents, or secret disguises that the R&D Branch created. It was the inspiration that his truth drug experiments gave to a new generation of CIA scientists who would conduct one of the most infamous programs in American history.” MK-Ultra, the agency’s clandestine experiments that administered LSD and other psychoactive drugs to unwitting subjects in the 1950s and early 1960s. A program that famously led to the death of a government biological warfare specialist named Frank Olson in 1953.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
According to his author website, “John Lisle is a historian from Azle, Texas. He earned a Ph.D. in history from the University of Texas, where he currently teaches courses on the history of science. John has received research and writing awards from the National Academy of Sciences, the American Institute of Physics, the California Institute of Technology, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and others. His writing has appeared in Scientific American, Smithsonian Magazine, Skeptic, the Journal of Intelligence History, and Physics in Perspective.
“John lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife.” The Dirty Tricks Department is his first book.
March 23, 2023
TL;DR
The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle is an excellent new additional to historical nonfiction. This untold story of the Research and Development Branch of the Office of Strategic Services documents the sad, horrifying, and funny efforts to improve the craft of spying. Highly recommended.
Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.
Review: The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle
World War 2 (WW2) can be thought of as an industrial war. The power of the combatants economy and industry contributed as much to the war effort as the soldiers on the field, if not to the same fatal degree. Looking back the public sees the industrial efforts in Rosie the Riveter, the liberty ships, and of course, production lines. World War 2 also featured a famous, focused research project on developing the weapon to end all weapons. Of course, this is the Manhattan Project. But little is known about the research, development, and production of spy equipment and practices as part of the larger industrial effort in WW2. Until now, that is. The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle is the real life history of how the tools and techniques of American spycraft were developed in World War 2. (Yes, the U.S. had spies before then; however, this was an industrial effort to produce tools and practices for spies.) The Dirty Tricks Department tells the origin of the OSS’s Research and Development Branch. From there, the gadgets of American spycraft flourish, but it’s also the origin of state sanctioned illegalities, such as forgery. This fascinating history tells how the U.S.’s spies were supported and supplied during WW2, paving the way for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to follow.
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the United States intelligence department during World War 2. It was established and run by William Joseph “Wild Bill” Donovan, a World War 1 veteran. Donovan approached Stanley Lovell, a chemist in Boston, for help. He needed someone to figure out how to play dirty. Lovell agreed, and so began the history of the OSS Research and Development Branch. This group of scientists, criminals, soldiers, and others advanced the field of spycraft through creativity, deviousness, and, at times, insanity. Their job was to aid U.S. spies in any way possible and help bring about the end of the war. The Dirty Tricks Department documents their efforts. It also documents Lovell’s descent from being an everyday chemist to becoming Donovan’s Professor Moriarty.
Lisle establishes the early days of the OSS well. He begins, naturally, with Donovan, then proceeds to Lovell, and from there explores the OSS at large. The OSS was seen as a more of a social club than a contributor to the war effort, and ironically Lovell reinforced this idea by setting up shop in the Congressional Country Club in Maryland. However it was anything but social. The scientists installed all kinds of research equipment, like vibration tables, humidity cabinets, and more. The OSS had a laboratory where saboteurs gained new equipment, pyromaniacs developed new tools, and limpet mines were produced.
Not all of the OSS’s ideas were a hit, though. At one point, they tested out bat bombs. Yes, you read that correctly. They had a plan to turn bats into bombs. The idea was that the bats would roost (nest?) in the eaves of Japanese buildings, and then, at a predetermined time, the devices attached to the bats would set fire to the buildings. A lot of work went into researching the bat bomb, and Lisle’s telling of it is excellent. It’s intriguing, funny (in a horrible/morbid sort of way), and yet still plausible. Despite the outlandish nature of the idea, they truly believed it would work, and Lisle makes you believe that it just might.
The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle is a historical retelling of the OSS’s research and development division. Lisle extensively researched this book and provides excellent sources and notes. Each chapter is well organized into stories that recount that history. Lisle’s writing is excellent and makes for a fast read. The material is at times funny, sad, horrifying, and always compelling.
The Ending
Lisle spends 17 out of 18 chapters on the OSS research division, their mission, and their achievements. As the book nears the end, Lisle discusses the less savory topics of war, such as biological and chemical weapons and drugs. He also devotes a chapter to Lovell’s post-war life and how he adjusts. These are all excellent chapters, and I think the book would have had a stronger ending if it left off with the retired Lovell. Yet, Lisle looks at one of the more controversial legacies of the OSS Research and Development Division, MKUltra.
The last chapter didn’t fit well with the rest of the book because MKUltra wasn’t an OSS operation; no, it was strictly the work of the CIA. While Lisle draws a line from the OSS to MKUltra, it feels out of place in a book dedicated to the OSS. The argument for MKUltra being strongly tied to the OSS’s legacy are a bit weak. Surely there are many other legacies of the research division that could be tied back to the inventions in the book with the same strength. Why not Agent Orange or the napalm used in Vietnam? Why single out MKUltra? It feels like a setup for Lisle’s next book more than an appropriate stopping point.
Obviously Lisle and his publishers disagree with me. If you’ve read this book, what do you think? Did the final chapter fit the book for you? Let me know in the comments.
Fantastic Writing
As someone who enjoys history books, I find that often they’re dry reads. There’s a distance put between the author and the subject, which in turn puts a distance between the reader and the subject. History is about dates, times, places, ideas, movements, and, of course, wars. But boil all of those things down to their common denominator, and you’ll find humans. History is ultimately about people and the things we do. Historians that focus on the people tend to be the writers that I like the most. Lisle is that type of writer. Even when talking about a gadget, he never loses sight of the person testing, devising, proposing, or using the gadget. He’s got the craft of a fiction writer and the research skills of an academic. Reading this book was less like a lecture at a university than a chat between friends, or maybe a really cool podcast.
Actually, the podcast idea has grown on me as I write this because each chapter does feel like an episode with a beginning, middle, and end that advances the overall story of the OSS Research and Development Division. This is a book that’s easy to read, and it’s filled with fantastic information about my country’s past. It’s a win-win for me. Lisle’s writing in this book puts him on my author watchlist. I’ll be following his authorial career with interest.
Conclusion
John Lisle’s The Dirty Tricks Department is an excellent history of the OSS Research and Development Branch. The books takes a sympathetic view of Stanley Lovell and his efforts to shorten the war effort, even if it meant crossing ethical boundaries. Lisle shows us the inventions and spycraft developed during war time that paved the way for the CIA and espionage American-style. The Dirty Tricks Department is an excellent read and introduces us to a new voice in historical nonfiction. I can’t wait to read what Lisle does next. Highly recommended.
The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle is available from St. Martin’s Press now.
The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle is an excellent new additional to historical nonfiction. This untold story of the Research and Development Branch of the Office of Strategic Services documents the sad, horrifying, and funny efforts to improve the craft of spying. Highly recommended.
Disclaimer: The publisher provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Any and all opinions that follow are mine alone.
Review: The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle
World War 2 (WW2) can be thought of as an industrial war. The power of the combatants economy and industry contributed as much to the war effort as the soldiers on the field, if not to the same fatal degree. Looking back the public sees the industrial efforts in Rosie the Riveter, the liberty ships, and of course, production lines. World War 2 also featured a famous, focused research project on developing the weapon to end all weapons. Of course, this is the Manhattan Project. But little is known about the research, development, and production of spy equipment and practices as part of the larger industrial effort in WW2. Until now, that is. The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle is the real life history of how the tools and techniques of American spycraft were developed in World War 2. (Yes, the U.S. had spies before then; however, this was an industrial effort to produce tools and practices for spies.) The Dirty Tricks Department tells the origin of the OSS’s Research and Development Branch. From there, the gadgets of American spycraft flourish, but it’s also the origin of state sanctioned illegalities, such as forgery. This fascinating history tells how the U.S.’s spies were supported and supplied during WW2, paving the way for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to follow.
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the United States intelligence department during World War 2. It was established and run by William Joseph “Wild Bill” Donovan, a World War 1 veteran. Donovan approached Stanley Lovell, a chemist in Boston, for help. He needed someone to figure out how to play dirty. Lovell agreed, and so began the history of the OSS Research and Development Branch. This group of scientists, criminals, soldiers, and others advanced the field of spycraft through creativity, deviousness, and, at times, insanity. Their job was to aid U.S. spies in any way possible and help bring about the end of the war. The Dirty Tricks Department documents their efforts. It also documents Lovell’s descent from being an everyday chemist to becoming Donovan’s Professor Moriarty.
Lisle establishes the early days of the OSS well. He begins, naturally, with Donovan, then proceeds to Lovell, and from there explores the OSS at large. The OSS was seen as a more of a social club than a contributor to the war effort, and ironically Lovell reinforced this idea by setting up shop in the Congressional Country Club in Maryland. However it was anything but social. The scientists installed all kinds of research equipment, like vibration tables, humidity cabinets, and more. The OSS had a laboratory where saboteurs gained new equipment, pyromaniacs developed new tools, and limpet mines were produced.
Not all of the OSS’s ideas were a hit, though. At one point, they tested out bat bombs. Yes, you read that correctly. They had a plan to turn bats into bombs. The idea was that the bats would roost (nest?) in the eaves of Japanese buildings, and then, at a predetermined time, the devices attached to the bats would set fire to the buildings. A lot of work went into researching the bat bomb, and Lisle’s telling of it is excellent. It’s intriguing, funny (in a horrible/morbid sort of way), and yet still plausible. Despite the outlandish nature of the idea, they truly believed it would work, and Lisle makes you believe that it just might.
The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle is a historical retelling of the OSS’s research and development division. Lisle extensively researched this book and provides excellent sources and notes. Each chapter is well organized into stories that recount that history. Lisle’s writing is excellent and makes for a fast read. The material is at times funny, sad, horrifying, and always compelling.
The Ending
Lisle spends 17 out of 18 chapters on the OSS research division, their mission, and their achievements. As the book nears the end, Lisle discusses the less savory topics of war, such as biological and chemical weapons and drugs. He also devotes a chapter to Lovell’s post-war life and how he adjusts. These are all excellent chapters, and I think the book would have had a stronger ending if it left off with the retired Lovell. Yet, Lisle looks at one of the more controversial legacies of the OSS Research and Development Division, MKUltra.
The last chapter didn’t fit well with the rest of the book because MKUltra wasn’t an OSS operation; no, it was strictly the work of the CIA. While Lisle draws a line from the OSS to MKUltra, it feels out of place in a book dedicated to the OSS. The argument for MKUltra being strongly tied to the OSS’s legacy are a bit weak. Surely there are many other legacies of the research division that could be tied back to the inventions in the book with the same strength. Why not Agent Orange or the napalm used in Vietnam? Why single out MKUltra? It feels like a setup for Lisle’s next book more than an appropriate stopping point.
Obviously Lisle and his publishers disagree with me. If you’ve read this book, what do you think? Did the final chapter fit the book for you? Let me know in the comments.
Fantastic Writing
As someone who enjoys history books, I find that often they’re dry reads. There’s a distance put between the author and the subject, which in turn puts a distance between the reader and the subject. History is about dates, times, places, ideas, movements, and, of course, wars. But boil all of those things down to their common denominator, and you’ll find humans. History is ultimately about people and the things we do. Historians that focus on the people tend to be the writers that I like the most. Lisle is that type of writer. Even when talking about a gadget, he never loses sight of the person testing, devising, proposing, or using the gadget. He’s got the craft of a fiction writer and the research skills of an academic. Reading this book was less like a lecture at a university than a chat between friends, or maybe a really cool podcast.
Actually, the podcast idea has grown on me as I write this because each chapter does feel like an episode with a beginning, middle, and end that advances the overall story of the OSS Research and Development Division. This is a book that’s easy to read, and it’s filled with fantastic information about my country’s past. It’s a win-win for me. Lisle’s writing in this book puts him on my author watchlist. I’ll be following his authorial career with interest.
Conclusion
John Lisle’s The Dirty Tricks Department is an excellent history of the OSS Research and Development Branch. The books takes a sympathetic view of Stanley Lovell and his efforts to shorten the war effort, even if it meant crossing ethical boundaries. Lisle shows us the inventions and spycraft developed during war time that paved the way for the CIA and espionage American-style. The Dirty Tricks Department is an excellent read and introduces us to a new voice in historical nonfiction. I can’t wait to read what Lisle does next. Highly recommended.
The Dirty Tricks Department by John Lisle is available from St. Martin’s Press now.
February 18, 2023
Great overview of various aspects of the OSS during the war. While the structure of the book makes it difficult to trace the chronological evolution of the organization, it allows for a topical dives into distinctive aspects of the hidden special forces, and insight into the post-war impact it played in the development of the CIA. Entertaining, if somewhat short, read. Thanks to the publishers for an ARC through Goodreads giveaways.
March 9, 2023
Wow, what a page turner! There is so much contained in this book. I’d recommend it to anyone, particularly those who might be less familiar with the full story of different undertakings of U.S. government agencies in carrying out strategic operations and experiments, especially those occurring during warfare, notably WWII, as well as those who are unfamiliar with the stratification and organization of intelligence used in war, those who read true crime, for a book report, as well as the human condition and character studies for an ethics or philosophy course. Would also make for an interesting book club discussion.
I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press for providing me with this copy for free through the Goodreads giveaway program.
The Story
Undercover appearance, currencies, propaganda, disinformation campaigns, sabotage, espionage, itching powder, incendiaries, signatures, and invisible ink to the grimness and underpinnings of profit and trade agreements, truth serums, various weaponry and agents, suicide swimmers, The Manhattan Project, Operation Paperclip, Unit 731, MKUltra, amongst many others. As well as insight into the roles of women, baseball player Moe Berg, and even a look at President Roosevelt’s stamp collection. Along with the rationalization, as shared within the organization, some formed by what was initially deemed as altruistic and utilitarian in notion, those stories as told by the various recruits carrying out such operations. Operations that were carried out on the enemy, U.S. military, civilians, and themselves alike.
This reads so smooth, like a fictional spy, mystery-thriller with intensity and immersive quality, yet these operations are all unbelievably real. Depicted and nicely curated, very thorough, read like a classic sense of adjacency to foundations of what you’d see in the stories of predate Sherlock Holmes and themes for James Bond, and even had me thinking back to the schemes of Max, 99, and the Chief from Get Smart. Though unfortunately as revealed, the darker of schemes of tragedies and crimes against humanity.
Tells deep perspective of assignment and duty in an emerging need turned tragedy that quite connects Stanley Lovell, colleagues, and informants, whether involved directly or indirectly, to their respective positions, agencies, branches, and all the undercover ways they… did what they did.
The turning points and advancement of technological advances through innovation, many of which were fascinating and clever, straddling the unknown to the known, many without an ethical oversight or accountability, whether on behalf of the agency or individual, leading to those of which that became horrific. Under the umbrella, whether intended or unintended, directly or in collateral, all hidden from the public, the book welcomes the reader to the underworld of intel.
It spans different operations across the globe, taking place within the mid-20th century, from point of origin and differing methodology. What's derivative and adapted by the U.S. amongst other interventions from Germany, British insight, The Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, and Japan in the race to win the war by completing the missions set forth. With obscure and unconventional objectives to avoid defeat, with experiments turned unethical and criminal.
Conveys the outlook well, in that perspective of an inside job. Will leave you asking who can you even trust? At what point, in the thickness of details, went wrong? What is trust anyway? Reality? Duties? Intentions? Consequence? Morality? Denial or searing of conscience, influence or coercion? Justice? Individual and group ethos? Compromising principles? Shame?
The Writing
This was very well-written. A great balance of narration in full detail, dialogue, written letters/passages that really added to the depth and breadth of each task and operation.
Well-organized by category, while remaining semi-chronological, all without losing any plot, and stayed precisely focused on matters as conducted in their raw and vulnerable forms.
Well-researched, revealed in good pace, and told by character perspective simultaneously so it felt suspenseful, yet also informative throughout.
Really clever use of time and setting to give personality and significance to the setting and atmosphere, in addition to personal characteristics of each recruit, including their backstory, initiations tests, and dynamics of PSYOPS assignments and toll of the emotion, psychological, and physical endurance as either witnessed or directly experienced, to orders carried out, sense of duty, outlook and conversations had, partnerships, social relations, and ramifications.
A birth of subsequent government agency, namely the CIA.
I’ll look forward to the next read.
Blog post
I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press for providing me with this copy for free through the Goodreads giveaway program.
The Story
Undercover appearance, currencies, propaganda, disinformation campaigns, sabotage, espionage, itching powder, incendiaries, signatures, and invisible ink to the grimness and underpinnings of profit and trade agreements, truth serums, various weaponry and agents, suicide swimmers, The Manhattan Project, Operation Paperclip, Unit 731, MKUltra, amongst many others. As well as insight into the roles of women, baseball player Moe Berg, and even a look at President Roosevelt’s stamp collection. Along with the rationalization, as shared within the organization, some formed by what was initially deemed as altruistic and utilitarian in notion, those stories as told by the various recruits carrying out such operations. Operations that were carried out on the enemy, U.S. military, civilians, and themselves alike.
This reads so smooth, like a fictional spy, mystery-thriller with intensity and immersive quality, yet these operations are all unbelievably real. Depicted and nicely curated, very thorough, read like a classic sense of adjacency to foundations of what you’d see in the stories of predate Sherlock Holmes and themes for James Bond, and even had me thinking back to the schemes of Max, 99, and the Chief from Get Smart. Though unfortunately as revealed, the darker of schemes of tragedies and crimes against humanity.
Tells deep perspective of assignment and duty in an emerging need turned tragedy that quite connects Stanley Lovell, colleagues, and informants, whether involved directly or indirectly, to their respective positions, agencies, branches, and all the undercover ways they… did what they did.
The turning points and advancement of technological advances through innovation, many of which were fascinating and clever, straddling the unknown to the known, many without an ethical oversight or accountability, whether on behalf of the agency or individual, leading to those of which that became horrific. Under the umbrella, whether intended or unintended, directly or in collateral, all hidden from the public, the book welcomes the reader to the underworld of intel.
It spans different operations across the globe, taking place within the mid-20th century, from point of origin and differing methodology. What's derivative and adapted by the U.S. amongst other interventions from Germany, British insight, The Soviet Union, China, Vietnam, and Japan in the race to win the war by completing the missions set forth. With obscure and unconventional objectives to avoid defeat, with experiments turned unethical and criminal.
Conveys the outlook well, in that perspective of an inside job. Will leave you asking who can you even trust? At what point, in the thickness of details, went wrong? What is trust anyway? Reality? Duties? Intentions? Consequence? Morality? Denial or searing of conscience, influence or coercion? Justice? Individual and group ethos? Compromising principles? Shame?
The Writing
This was very well-written. A great balance of narration in full detail, dialogue, written letters/passages that really added to the depth and breadth of each task and operation.
Well-organized by category, while remaining semi-chronological, all without losing any plot, and stayed precisely focused on matters as conducted in their raw and vulnerable forms.
Well-researched, revealed in good pace, and told by character perspective simultaneously so it felt suspenseful, yet also informative throughout.
Really clever use of time and setting to give personality and significance to the setting and atmosphere, in addition to personal characteristics of each recruit, including their backstory, initiations tests, and dynamics of PSYOPS assignments and toll of the emotion, psychological, and physical endurance as either witnessed or directly experienced, to orders carried out, sense of duty, outlook and conversations had, partnerships, social relations, and ramifications.
A birth of subsequent government agency, namely the CIA.
I’ll look forward to the next read.
Blog post
January 30, 2023
My thanks to both NetGalley and the publisher St. Martin's Press for an advanced copy of this history book on the varied activities of the Office of Strategic Services, the people involved and the tools they used to fight with during the Second World War.
There is much talk about the rules of war, but to win a fight, to end it quickly, fighting dirty is sometimes the only way. Fighting dirty means that everything is put into the battle to win, the beat the minds, the heart, the strength of the enemy. Propaganda, stealing secrets, sapping moral, destroying production, making the enemy and the people afraid of the dark and what might be lurking there. Every plan has to be lucky, for every unlucky moment means a waste money, time, training, and a human life. Every setback means more people dying somewhere. To paraphrase the leader of the OSS to his chief thinker you need someone with "“hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical kind", as Sir Arthur Conan once wrote about Professor Moriarty, the arch foe of Sherlock Holmes. And in Stanley Lovell, William Donovan got his Moriarty. Author John Lisle tells the story of these two men and much more in The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare. The book details their efforts to outwit America's enemies, the failures, successes, and the people involved.
Stanley Lovell was a industrial scientist in the shoe industry with a ideas that were outside of normal science, and a strong sense of democracy. Lovell was asked to go to Washington DC for a meeting with a group that was secret, and there he was introduced to a side of war that he was unfamiliar with. William "Wild Bill" Donovan recently appointed Head of the Office of Strategic, a precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, placed Lovell in charge of designing the weapons that OSS agents could use to fight the war in the shadows. These included silenced pistols, pencil detonators, suicide pills, and everything spies would need to fight behind enemy lines. There were also weird weapons, bats with incendiary devices, or glow in the dark foxes. Soon the OSS had forgers for documents, clothing designers for region specific outfits and more. Lovell's legacy for tricks and tools continued after the war, a legacy the Central Intelligence Agency is still dealing with today.
A fascinating and well written account of the war in the shadows, and the tools that were used. This book hooks readers from the first chapter and really never lets up. The writing and the research are very good, with a handy appendix to explain terms more in depth. This book not only talks about the devices, but about the agents involved, sharing their stories of heroism, and their stories of failure and pain. Lisle is very good at communicating both the technical and human factor of the story. Plus he goes into depth on the psychological toll, and how being in a war, a dirty war made everything including biological and chemical warfare against civilians fair game. The book also covers a bit about Lovell's legacy going into the Central Intelligence Agency's Mk-Ultra projects and how what Lovell did was an inspiration for their work. A very good history about a dark time, and a dirty war.
A very well written history, sure to be one of my favorites of the year. Recommended for World War II readers and fans of espionage. Also I would suggest this book for writers of science fiction or thrillers, because some of the ideas are really out there and deserve whole books about them, and to prove that the real world and academia is sometimes crazier than fiction.
There is much talk about the rules of war, but to win a fight, to end it quickly, fighting dirty is sometimes the only way. Fighting dirty means that everything is put into the battle to win, the beat the minds, the heart, the strength of the enemy. Propaganda, stealing secrets, sapping moral, destroying production, making the enemy and the people afraid of the dark and what might be lurking there. Every plan has to be lucky, for every unlucky moment means a waste money, time, training, and a human life. Every setback means more people dying somewhere. To paraphrase the leader of the OSS to his chief thinker you need someone with "“hereditary tendencies of the most diabolical kind", as Sir Arthur Conan once wrote about Professor Moriarty, the arch foe of Sherlock Holmes. And in Stanley Lovell, William Donovan got his Moriarty. Author John Lisle tells the story of these two men and much more in The Dirty Tricks Department: Stanley Lovell, the OSS, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare. The book details their efforts to outwit America's enemies, the failures, successes, and the people involved.
Stanley Lovell was a industrial scientist in the shoe industry with a ideas that were outside of normal science, and a strong sense of democracy. Lovell was asked to go to Washington DC for a meeting with a group that was secret, and there he was introduced to a side of war that he was unfamiliar with. William "Wild Bill" Donovan recently appointed Head of the Office of Strategic, a precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency, placed Lovell in charge of designing the weapons that OSS agents could use to fight the war in the shadows. These included silenced pistols, pencil detonators, suicide pills, and everything spies would need to fight behind enemy lines. There were also weird weapons, bats with incendiary devices, or glow in the dark foxes. Soon the OSS had forgers for documents, clothing designers for region specific outfits and more. Lovell's legacy for tricks and tools continued after the war, a legacy the Central Intelligence Agency is still dealing with today.
A fascinating and well written account of the war in the shadows, and the tools that were used. This book hooks readers from the first chapter and really never lets up. The writing and the research are very good, with a handy appendix to explain terms more in depth. This book not only talks about the devices, but about the agents involved, sharing their stories of heroism, and their stories of failure and pain. Lisle is very good at communicating both the technical and human factor of the story. Plus he goes into depth on the psychological toll, and how being in a war, a dirty war made everything including biological and chemical warfare against civilians fair game. The book also covers a bit about Lovell's legacy going into the Central Intelligence Agency's Mk-Ultra projects and how what Lovell did was an inspiration for their work. A very good history about a dark time, and a dirty war.
A very well written history, sure to be one of my favorites of the year. Recommended for World War II readers and fans of espionage. Also I would suggest this book for writers of science fiction or thrillers, because some of the ideas are really out there and deserve whole books about them, and to prove that the real world and academia is sometimes crazier than fiction.
February 14, 2024
Well, I expected a dry report on the beginnings of the OSS. Much to my surprise, this book is full of humorous anecdotes and amazing details.
“Wild Bill” Donovan was a World War I hero. “In 1923, Donovan was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions in World War I, making him the most decorated officer in the entire U.S. military.” He encouraged President Roosevelt to form a centralized intelligence organization “to oversee the collection of intelligence abroad.” He wanted the agency to “engage in espionage, sabotage, propaganda, and disinformation campaigns against America’s enemies.”
In July, 1941, Donavan was named to the new position of Coordinator of Information (COI), in charge of espionage, sabotage, propaganda, and disinformation. The COI soon became the OSS. Donavan did an admirable job. His collection of “analysts and anthropologists, forgers and foreign language experts, safecrackers and scientists” developed the most ridiculous and effective (and ineffective) weapons and procedures for use by saboteurs and spies working to destroy Nazis and Japanese enemies.
There are many stories about saboteur disasters, kidnappings, the art of forgery (document and money), hypnotism, and assassination attempts—and Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and the Manhattan Project.
“The Camouflage Division supplied all of the clothing, equipment, and accessories that undercover agents needed for their disguises abroad.”
Detachment 101, a branch of the OSS, was“credited with obtaining the highest kill-to-loss ratio of any infantry-type unit in U.S. military history.”
The treatment of captured undercover agents, men and women. is horrifying.
“On December 31, 1943, the National Academy of Sciences hosted a secret meeting of ten scientists, military officers, and business leaders to discuss recent advances in biological warfare…Among the diseases that most interested the group were anthrax, botulism, brucellosis, cholera, dysentery, mussel poisoning, plague, psittacosis, tularemia, typhus, and valley fever.”
Several people who tried to stop the production of biological weapons, had no problem supporting dropping atomic bombs. However, Germany was at the forefront of chemical weapons research. Luckily, President Franklin Roosevelt established a no-first-use policy for both chemical biological weapons. Hermann Göring may have said that had the Americans used gas, not on the soldiers, but on the transportation systems (horses), the war would have ended years earlier. He went on, “Your intelligence men are asses!”
Thanks to President Truman, the postwar successor to the OSS was the Central Intelligence Agency.
Such an informative and fascinating book.
“Wild Bill” Donovan was a World War I hero. “In 1923, Donovan was awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions in World War I, making him the most decorated officer in the entire U.S. military.” He encouraged President Roosevelt to form a centralized intelligence organization “to oversee the collection of intelligence abroad.” He wanted the agency to “engage in espionage, sabotage, propaganda, and disinformation campaigns against America’s enemies.”
In July, 1941, Donavan was named to the new position of Coordinator of Information (COI), in charge of espionage, sabotage, propaganda, and disinformation. The COI soon became the OSS. Donavan did an admirable job. His collection of “analysts and anthropologists, forgers and foreign language experts, safecrackers and scientists” developed the most ridiculous and effective (and ineffective) weapons and procedures for use by saboteurs and spies working to destroy Nazis and Japanese enemies.
There are many stories about saboteur disasters, kidnappings, the art of forgery (document and money), hypnotism, and assassination attempts—and Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and the Manhattan Project.
“The Camouflage Division supplied all of the clothing, equipment, and accessories that undercover agents needed for their disguises abroad.”
Detachment 101, a branch of the OSS, was“credited with obtaining the highest kill-to-loss ratio of any infantry-type unit in U.S. military history.”
The treatment of captured undercover agents, men and women. is horrifying.
“On December 31, 1943, the National Academy of Sciences hosted a secret meeting of ten scientists, military officers, and business leaders to discuss recent advances in biological warfare…Among the diseases that most interested the group were anthrax, botulism, brucellosis, cholera, dysentery, mussel poisoning, plague, psittacosis, tularemia, typhus, and valley fever.”
Several people who tried to stop the production of biological weapons, had no problem supporting dropping atomic bombs. However, Germany was at the forefront of chemical weapons research. Luckily, President Franklin Roosevelt established a no-first-use policy for both chemical biological weapons. Hermann Göring may have said that had the Americans used gas, not on the soldiers, but on the transportation systems (horses), the war would have ended years earlier. He went on, “Your intelligence men are asses!”
Thanks to President Truman, the postwar successor to the OSS was the Central Intelligence Agency.
Such an informative and fascinating book.
December 7, 2022
This book chronicles the work of Bill Donovan, who became the first Coordinator of Information (COI) before heading up the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), his mad scientist inventor Stanley Lovell, and others who fought dirty for the sake of national security.
President Roosevelt appointed Donovan in 1941 as war in Europe escalated, to collect intelligence related to national security and perform espionage, sabotage and propaganda. The number of personnel in Donovan’s department grew and his responsibilities soared after Japan attacked the American base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Now too large to be under the auspices of the White House, Roosevelt changed the name of Donovan��s organization to the Office of Strategic Services (a precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency), and placed them under the purview of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
From these humble beginnings, Donovan defended the organization from barbs and quips, some well-deserved. Detractors said Donovan hired the rich and famous to divert them from serving in the armed forces. At a dinner party, Horace Schmahl made fun of Donovan’s agency, saying it was a “Tinker Toy outfit, spying on spies”. Donovan challenged Schmahl, saying he could steal his secret files and blow up his ammunition dump before midnight. Donovan made a discreet phone call to his office. His employees broke into Schmahl’s office and safe, stole his secret information, and planted fake dynamite at his ammunition dump. Donovan got the last laugh when he handed Schmahl the contents of his safe and told him where to find the fake dynamite, all before the dinner party was over.
As the OSS grew, Donovan created several departments to oversee divisions of the operation, including a branch to make lethal gear and gadgets on the order of Q, the fictional scientist who created such devices for James Bond. This group of scientists pursued ridiculous (attaching cats to bombs since cats always land on their feet), barbaric (biological warfare), and even some useful (time-delay detonation) ideas. They considered ways to assassinate foreign leaders and developed a lethal pill for US agents to ingest if captured. There were additional drug experiments, including a plot to spike Hitler’s food with female hormones.
The book mainly covers the time periods just before, during, and after World War II, although it mentions little of John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles and the CIA’s covert activities. The Dirty Tricks Department addresses the inventors’ moral dilemma of creating devices and tactics to kill, with most justifying it by believing their work would shorten the war.
The book covers a lot of material without becoming overly serious, as may be deduced from the title.
President Roosevelt appointed Donovan in 1941 as war in Europe escalated, to collect intelligence related to national security and perform espionage, sabotage and propaganda. The number of personnel in Donovan’s department grew and his responsibilities soared after Japan attacked the American base at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Now too large to be under the auspices of the White House, Roosevelt changed the name of Donovan��s organization to the Office of Strategic Services (a precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency), and placed them under the purview of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
From these humble beginnings, Donovan defended the organization from barbs and quips, some well-deserved. Detractors said Donovan hired the rich and famous to divert them from serving in the armed forces. At a dinner party, Horace Schmahl made fun of Donovan’s agency, saying it was a “Tinker Toy outfit, spying on spies”. Donovan challenged Schmahl, saying he could steal his secret files and blow up his ammunition dump before midnight. Donovan made a discreet phone call to his office. His employees broke into Schmahl’s office and safe, stole his secret information, and planted fake dynamite at his ammunition dump. Donovan got the last laugh when he handed Schmahl the contents of his safe and told him where to find the fake dynamite, all before the dinner party was over.
As the OSS grew, Donovan created several departments to oversee divisions of the operation, including a branch to make lethal gear and gadgets on the order of Q, the fictional scientist who created such devices for James Bond. This group of scientists pursued ridiculous (attaching cats to bombs since cats always land on their feet), barbaric (biological warfare), and even some useful (time-delay detonation) ideas. They considered ways to assassinate foreign leaders and developed a lethal pill for US agents to ingest if captured. There were additional drug experiments, including a plot to spike Hitler’s food with female hormones.
The book mainly covers the time periods just before, during, and after World War II, although it mentions little of John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles and the CIA’s covert activities. The Dirty Tricks Department addresses the inventors’ moral dilemma of creating devices and tactics to kill, with most justifying it by believing their work would shorten the war.
The book covers a lot of material without becoming overly serious, as may be deduced from the title.
April 26, 2023
The audiobook edition isn't yet listed in Goodreads, but that is the one I used. This book describes the early version of our present CIA (Central Intelligence Office) which functioned as the OSS (Office of Strategic services) during World War II under the direction of William ("Wild Bill") Donovan.
Donavan employed an eclectic group of scientists, engineers, and spies dedicated to winning the war by any means. They invented and deployed a number of creative, odd, and often malicious devices as well as various hapless animals in their attempts to foil our enemies. In addition, they were involved in creation of false documents, counterfeit currency, biochemical, lethal poisons, and other illegal/unsanctioned tools.
This book provides a description of some of the unsavory methods which do not appear in most of our public documentation of this war, and most likely in conflicts that have followed. It is not a complete and detailed account of all our government did/does, but it is enough to give readers a better understanding of what lengths people will go to in order to win a war of self-preservation or aggression. The material provided is enough to make us all pause and reflect on the lines of morality we must all soberly consider before crossing.
There is a lot to unpack in this concise account so, after a brief respite, I will listen to it all again in order to improve my understanding of our collective history. In many ways I am reminded of Ian Fleming's original James Bond novels that I eagerly read in the 60s. After all, Fleming worked for the British spy agency during the war, and his experiences brought an essential element of truth to the hyperbole so prevalent in his fiction books.
In this book, John Lisle's meticulous research provides the reality ofhuman conflict minus Fleming's entertaining embellishments.
4/26/23
It was worth the second listen for me to clarify some of the details. I understand that the hard copy has a large number of citations to support the information offered.
Donavan employed an eclectic group of scientists, engineers, and spies dedicated to winning the war by any means. They invented and deployed a number of creative, odd, and often malicious devices as well as various hapless animals in their attempts to foil our enemies. In addition, they were involved in creation of false documents, counterfeit currency, biochemical, lethal poisons, and other illegal/unsanctioned tools.
This book provides a description of some of the unsavory methods which do not appear in most of our public documentation of this war, and most likely in conflicts that have followed. It is not a complete and detailed account of all our government did/does, but it is enough to give readers a better understanding of what lengths people will go to in order to win a war of self-preservation or aggression. The material provided is enough to make us all pause and reflect on the lines of morality we must all soberly consider before crossing.
There is a lot to unpack in this concise account so, after a brief respite, I will listen to it all again in order to improve my understanding of our collective history. In many ways I am reminded of Ian Fleming's original James Bond novels that I eagerly read in the 60s. After all, Fleming worked for the British spy agency during the war, and his experiences brought an essential element of truth to the hyperbole so prevalent in his fiction books.
In this book, John Lisle's meticulous research provides the reality ofhuman conflict minus Fleming's entertaining embellishments.
4/26/23
It was worth the second listen for me to clarify some of the details. I understand that the hard copy has a large number of citations to support the information offered.
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