#5-148
Draft Letter to Clarence Cannon1
May 29, 1945 [Washington, D.C.]
Restricted
Dear Mr. Cannon:
The Joint Chiefs of Staff consider that the Office of Strategic Services will continue to be useful in the conduct of the war.2
Replies from various theater commanders have been forwarded to your committee. In the areas where OSS has been utilized, there is agreement as to the value of its contribution to the war effort. It appears desirable that the OSS be permitted to continue its operations in accordance with the desires of the responsible commanders.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff are not in a position to offer any detailed statement as to the appropriations required to support the organization during the coming year. It appears, however, that with termination of hostilities in Europe, the requirements for the next fiscal year should be appreciably less than those for the past year.3
Document Copy Text Source: Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs (RG 165), Records of the Office of the Chief of Staff (OCS), 334.8, Office of Strategic Services, National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland.
Document Format: Typed draft.
1. This letter to the House Appropriations Committee chairman was drafted in the Operations Division but considerably edited by Marshall. The as-sent version is not in the Marshall Papers.
2. Earlier in the month, the J.C.S. had solicited opinions on the usefulness of the O.S.S. from various theater commanders. Responses are in NA/RG 218 (Records of the Chairman, William D. Leahy, Folder 54).
3. Among the funding cuts for wartime agencies President Truman recommended to Congress on May 21 was $14,000,000 from the O.S.S. budget for fiscal 1946. By Executive Order 9621 (September 20, 1945), the president terminated the O.S.S. as of October 1, moving most of its duties to the State Department.
Recommended Citation: The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, ed. Larry I. Bland and Sharon Ritenour Stevens (Lexington, Va.: The George C. Marshall Foundation, 1981– ). Electronic version based on The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 5, “The Finest Soldier,” January 1, 1945–January 7, 1947 (Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003), pp. 207–208.