OSS Against the Reich: The World War II Diaries of Colonel David K.E. Bruce

OSS Against the Reich presents the previously unpublished World War II diaries of Colonel David K.E. Bruce, London branch chief of America’s first secret intelligence agency, as he observed the war against Hitler. The entries include eyewitness accounts of D-Day, the rocket attacks on England, and the liberation of Paris. As a top deputy of William J. “Wild Bill” Donovan, founder of the Office of Strategic Services, Bruce kept his diary sporadically in 1942 and made daily entries from the invasion of Normandy until the Battle of the Bulge. Bruce had served in World War I and, as Andrew Mellon’s son-in-law, moved easily in the world of corporate and museum boardrooms and New York society. However, World War II gave him a more serious and satisfying purpose in life; the experience of running the OSS’s most important overseas branch confirmed his lifelong interest in foreign service. After the war, in partnership with his second wife, Evangeline, Bruce headed the Marshall Plan in France and was ambassador to Paris, Bonn, and London. He further served as head of negotiations at the Paris peace talks on Vietnam, first American emissary to China and ambassador to NATO.

The clandestine work of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in World War II is increasingly well known through several fine biographies of William J. Donovan, head of OSS. Other distinguished alumni of OSS, such as late CIA director William Casey, have provided memoirs of their wartime service. Bruce was chief of the London office of OSS, and after the war held several distinguished diplomatic assignments. The diary entries in this book cover much of the time he spent as London chief. Specialists may find the entries particularly interesting for the many influential contacts he records, but there is little here that discloses either secrets or the larger view of OSS's intelligence activities.
- George H. Siehl, Library of Congress
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.