14. The “Surprise, Kill, and Vanish” Ivy Leaguers
The CIA’s predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was created in June, 1942 to collect and analyze strategic intelligence, and to carry out “special activities”. Operating under the overall command of America’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, the OSS was headed by William “Wild Bill” Donovan, a WWI Medal of Honor winner and personal friend of FDR.
Like FDR (and William Colby), OSS chief William Donovan was an Ivy Leaguer and Columbia Law School alumnus. He saw to it that his organization recruited heavily from Ivy League circles. Colby, with Princeton and Columbia on his resume, an international background, a thirst for adventure, and a qualified parachutist with demolition training, was just the type the OSS was looking for. He was accepted into the organization in 1943. Colby received intensive training in guerrilla tactics to operate as a “Jedburgh” – OSS agents who worked with resistance forces in occupied Europe, and whose motto was “Surprise, Kill, and Vanish“.