Jay M Johnson

Once A Spy, Always A Spy Jay M Johnson

General William Donovan was the head of America's first centralized intelligence organization, Office of Strategic Services (OSS). J Edgar Hoover, the director of the FBI, was jealous of the amount of power that Donovan held as director of the OSS and worried that Donovan would try to usurp the power that he exercised as director of the FBI. Hoover, knowing that President Truman didn't like Donovan, used that as an opportunity to lobby Truman to abolish the OSS. When WW2 ended, President Truman, following Hoover's advice, did just that, and disbanded the OSS.

General Donovan, knowing that an organized intelligence organization was essential to America's survival and would have to be reestablished, soon, began making plans and contingency plans for the creation of a new intelligence organization. When Truman by-passed Donovan as the director of a new intelligence agency, the intelligence community was stunned. When the new CIA was infiltrated by Russian spies, Donovan activated his contingency plan for a new, independent spy organization and kept it secret from all government officials and politicians. Russian spies would not be able to infiltrate an American spy organization if they were unaware of its existence. For the same reason, dimwitted American politicians would be unable to interfere.)