OSS - Intelligence at its best!

Click here for original commentary in Defense One

In keeping with our program of republishing relevant, important commentary 

to broaden its exposure, our highlighted post today is written by Charles Pinck to 

honor the original and remaining members of the OSS, the historic US intelligence 

service.  We take special pleasure in this post as we served and worked with several

distinguished members of this organization during our service as an intelligence officer; 

among others, we served with LTG Vernon Walters while he was Reagan's Ambassador 

at Large and through whom, we met and worked with many former OSS officers.  Walters 

also was the undeclared Deep Throat - engineering the removal of Henry Kissinger from power.

With his support, we also created the Defense Clandestine Service in 1984 modeled 

somewhat on the OSS, and populated it with well-educated military officers who 

were specialists in geographical areas of military interest for future conflicts 

[e.g., Iraq, Iran, Yemen], and whose reporting was lauded by the Senate 

Special Committee on Intelligence.

Former OSS officer/Director of Central Intelligence Vernon Walters and President Reagan

What do attorney James Donovan (portrayed by Tom Hanks in “Bridge of Spies”), the “French Chef” Julia Child, Virginia Hall (the only American civilian woman to receive the Distinguished Service Cross during World War II), Nobel Peace Prize recipient Ralph Bunche, Pulitzer Prize recipient Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Hollywood director John Ford, and architect Eero Saarinen (who designed Dulles Airport) have in common? 

They all served in the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS, the World War II predecessor to the CIA and the US Special Operations Command.

As we commemorate the 70^th anniversary of the end of World War II this year - and increasingly rely on our intelligence and special operations communities to defend the United States - we should remember that they were born in the crucible of World War II. 

In June 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt created the OSS and appointed as its director the legendary General William “Wild Bill” Donovan, the only American to receive our nation’s four highest decorations, including the Medal of Honor. Donovan dedicated his entire life to serving the United States, starting in World War I as part of the “Fighting 69^th” Infantry Regiment. 

Wild Bill Donovan

One of our nation’s leading attorneys, he served as an assistant United States attorney general and as the US Attorney for the Western District of New York.  President Roosevelt sent him to Great Britain in 1940 as one of his personal emissaries. Following World War II, he served as ambassador to Thailand during the height of the Cold War.

[Donovan, though a "junior" general, commanded so much respect that senior officers showed him special deference by rising when he entered the room]

Fisher Howe, who served as a special assistant to Donovan, said that “if you define leadership as having a vision for an organization, and the ability to attract, motivate and guide followers to fulfill that vision, you have Bill Donovan in spades.” Roosevelt called Donovan his “secret legs".  Donovan led by example, going behind enemy lines and taking part in several invasions, including D-Day.

Professor E. Bruce Reynolds said the “OSS was an organization designed to do great things.” It did great things. The OSS was the most remarkable organization ever created by the U.S. government, from building resistance movements behind enemy lines in Europe and Asia, to gathering intelligence in advance of Operations Overlord (Normandy) and Torch (North Africa); waging unconventional warfare against the Japanese in Burma by OSS Detachment 101 (the most effective fighting force in the OSS and the recipient of a Presidential Unit Citation); inventing and implementing innovative technologies (including the first underwater rebreathing device that was used by the OSS Maritime Unit, the predecessor to the US Navy SEALs); carrying out the greatest rescue mission of World War II, Operation Halyard; and its recruitment of leading academics.

At the core of the OSS were the incredible group of Americans whom Donovan recruited to serve from every military branch and the civilian population. 

OSS Org Chart - Far less complicated than CIA's 

They included the actor and Marine Sterling Hayden, who won a Silver Star; Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg; Colonel Aaron Bank, a founder of the US Special Forces; Colonel William Eddy, who was described as the “Lawrence of America”; Fred Mayer, the “real inglorious basterd” who, after being tortured by the Gestapo for several days, convinced his torturers to surrender Innsbruck, Austria, and was nominated for a Medal of Honor; and, members of the Jedburghs and Operational Groups, forerunners of today’s US Special Operations Forces, who went behind enemy lines as did many other members of the OSS.  Donovan said they performed “some of the bravest acts of the war.”  

[Notes: 
1) Some of the most notable journalists of the Cold War were former OSS officers
2) The US Congress, with only limited access to information about the OSS, was opposed to it, and "... charged that it was riddled with Communists and criminals.  
   a) After WW2. the HUAC charged several OSS officers with treason for operating with Communist leaders Mao Tse Tung and Ho Chi Minh.
   b) One officer, Willis H Bird, was destroyed professionally and financially by these accusations, but Donovan, then US Ambassador to Thailand, brought Bird back to Thailand where he became successful both in finance and assisting the Thai government establish a highly effective intelligence service.]
3) Newly-seated President Truman, after reviewing a damning report on the OSS's "profligate spending" and potential as a "Gestapo", turned the report over to the Congressional Committee on Agency Liquidation which closed the OSS and demanded Donovan's removal. ]

Senators Roy Blunt, R- Mo., and Mark Warner, D-Va., and Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, have introduced legislation to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the members of the Office of Strategic Services “in recognition of their superior service and major contributions during World War II.” 

The Senate bill has the support of the entire Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. When Donovan died in 1959, President Eisenhower called him the “last hero.” 

It is time to honor the “last hero” and all the heroes of the OSS, who are dwindling in number, with a Congressional Gold Medal. Congress should pass this bill. 

Trump will fix VA

The only candidate with a legitimate and workable VA reform        [Reuters photo]

In our continuing series of guest posts from reputable reporters and analysts, 

we highlight  Betsy McCaughey's Opinion Piece in the New York Post [3 Nov 2015] 

to provide a wider dissemination [i.e., global] to her comments.

Click here for original article [Trump shows real policy chops with great fix for ailing VA]

20% of voters are Military Vets

A whopping 20 percent of Republican primary voters are military Veterans. No wonder GOP presidential candidates are making the scandal-plagued Veterans Affairs Department a campaign issue.

And the man frequently tagged as lacking substance — Donald Trump — just came out with the best reform plan so far.

Under Trump’s plan, vets of all ages who are eligible for VA care could get treated at any civilian doctor’s office or hospital that takes Medicare. No bureaucratic hoops, pre-approvals or wait lists.

Trump’s proposal leverages the close connection between Medicare and Veterans Affairs — 45% of VA users are already on Medicare. Opponents are carping that Trump’s plan lacks details, but we don’t need a 1,000-page bill. Trump’s proposal works. It also does an end-run around the VA bureaucracy that has sabotaged every effort so far to allow Vets to go outside for care.

VA excludes Disabled Vets           [MrConservative]

For 20 years, Veterans Affairs has failed to provide timely care to sick vets. Congress has been alerted again and again that VA schedulers falsified wait lists and even lied to vets, telling them they were in line to be seen when they weren’t. After several vets died needlessly at the Phoenix VA facility, Congress finally enacted reform last year. It promised vets the option of civilian care.

Every vet gets a “choice card,” but it’s a cruel joke. The law erects so many hurdles that few vets can actually use it.

Vets have to live more than 40 miles from a VA facility or have waited more than 30 days to be eligible. Then they have to get a letter confirming eligibility from Veterans Affairs — good luck with that. Then their civilian doctor has to call for pre-approval before treatment — fat chance getting that call answered. After all that, treatment is limited to 60 days. Like you can cure cancer in 60 days!

More than half of vets haven’t even heard about the choice program, which is just what the VA bureaucracy wants. But count on Trump — the master marketer — to get the word out about his plan if he’s elected president. And to fire VA Secretary Robert McDonald, who is a mere apologist for the system.

Competitors criticize Trump for not estimating the cost. But the facts suggest his plan will be low-cost, because nearly half of VA users are already on Medicare. Astoundingly, over 1 million of them have Medicare Advantage, which means taxpayers are paying insurance companies to care for them and then paying Veterans Affairs to care for them. This nonsensical double payment sends 10 percent of the VA health budget down the drain every year.

Overall, encouraging older vets to use Medicare instead by picking up their out-of-pocket costs when they go to a civilian doctor is a no-brainer, and it would cut VA wait lists in half. That would allow younger vets to see a VA doctor faster. But Trump also gives them access to civilian doctors, if they prefer.

Vets needing procedures such as bypass surgery and angioplasty do better at civilian hospitals that perform them in high volume. Medical studies support Trump’s idea. (No kidding!)

Concerned Veterans for America lashed out at Trump’s plan for lacking details. It proposes moving vets into private health plans with subsidies to help pay the premiums. But the plans resemble ObamaCare, meaning most vets could face large out-of-pocket costs.

That’s a nonstarter. 

Vets already earned their care. At the VA, they can see a doctor for $15. Maybe Concerned Veterans was fast to criticize Trump because one of their plan’s authors is an adviser to another presidential campaign.

So we lost a few at Benghazi!

Hillary Rodham Clinton says she’ll unveil a VA reform plan next month. 

She’s already brushed aside evidence of VA corruption, denying it’s widespread. Trump is the candidate best equipped so far with a real alternative when she launches into a defense of the VA’s rotten status quo.

Trump - Builds Stuff - May ReBuild America

Help me retake America from the Communists

We continue our series of guest blog posts by superior thinkers and writers.

Today's piece was written by G. Murphy Donovan, who covers national security, 

military affairs, intelligence, threat analysis, and terrorism.  He had two tours in Vietnam, 

and is a recognized professional smart guy when it comes to Russian studies and political and diplomatic assessments.  Although his pieces are widely distributed, we republish here to ensure his work, and his blog get even wider distribution through our global audience.  

We salute Mr Donovan and trust he will continue to provide us with his superb insight on national and world events. 

[https://ljpkjsah.wordpress.com/]

Donald Trump is a piece of work even by New York standards: tall, white, loud, brash, entrepreneurial, successful, rich, ruthlessly candid, well-dressed, and fond of heterosexual women. He has married at least three delicious ladies in fact. Trump has five children and seven grandchildren. Indeed, his progeny are well above average too, smartly groomed, photogenic, and successful to boot.

Created thousands of jobs

As far as we know, Donald does not have any tattoos, piercings, unpaid taxes, or under-aged bimbo interns. He is not a drunk or a junkie either. Trump projects and enterprises probably employ more folks than the NYC school system -- or the United Nations.

You could say that Trump is living the life, not the life of Riley, but more like Daddy Warbucks with a comb over. “The Donald,” as one ex-wife calls him, is not just living the American dream. Trump is the dream -- and proud of it. 

You could do worse than think of Trump as upwardly mobile blue collar. He is the grandson of immigrants and the product of Long island, a Queens household, and a Bronx education. The Donald survived the Jesuits of Fordham University for two years before migrating to finish his baccalaureate at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania .

When readers of the New York Times, The New Yorker, and the New York Review of Books speak of “the city”, they are not talking about the Queens or the Bronx.  Growing and schooling in the blue-collar boroughs gives Trump a curb level perspective, something seldom found in Manhattan . Or as any “D” Train alumnus might put it, Trump has “a pretty good Bravo Sierra detector.”

So what’s not to like about Donald Trump? He doesn’t just stay in four-star hotels; he builds them. He doesn’t just own luxury condominiums; he makes them. He doesn’t just own historic buildings; he restores them. He doesn’t just eat at the best restaurants; he creates them. He just doesn’t belong to the best country clubs; he builds those, too.

And Donald Trump, unlike the Manhattan/Washington fantasy Press and every Beltway political pimp, doesn’t just pay lip service to a bigger and better economy, he creates micro-economies every day.

The only thing we don’t know about Donald Trump is why he would like to emigrate to the District of Columbia.

Wished AIDS on Jesse Helms

In any case, the merits of entrepreneurs like Trump might best be defined by the character or motives of his critics. Trump detractors are for the most part “B” list politicians, ambulance chasers, and a left-leaning Press corps that lionizes the likes of Nina Totenberg, Dan Rather, Chris Matthews, Andrea Mitchell, and Brian Williams.

If the truth were told, most of Trump’s critics are jealous, envious of his wealth, and they loath his candor.  Donald might also be hated for what he is not. Trump is not a lawyer, nor is he a career politician who lives on the taxpayer dime. Trump is paying for his own campaign. Bernie, Barack, McCain, and Kerry could take enterprise lessons from a chap like Trump.

Unlike most government barnacles, Trump can walk and chew gum at the same time. He knows how to close a deal and build something. He is a net creator, not consumer, of a kind of wealth that provides “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” for Americans -- real jobs not feather merchants.

Today, Trump has nothing left to prove. Yet, success has allowed him the rarest of public privileges, an electoral pulpit and the courage to speak his mind. Alas, truth is not necessarily a political asset in a socialized democracy.

Indeed, the erstwhile presidential candidate stepped on his crank recently by suggesting that Mexico, already exporting dangerous drugs, cheap tomatoes, and even cheaper labor, was also exporting violent felons to the US.

Truth hurts!

Sanchez murdered Steinle  in Sanctuary city 

Trump’s rude candor is underwritten by nearly half a million illegal felons in American jails. 

Coincidentally, events have conspired to support Trump’s take on Mexican dystopia with the El Chapo Guzman jailbreak and the murder of Kathryn Steinle by Francisco Sanchez.


Señor Sanchez sported a lengthy criminal record and had been deported on four previous occasions. San Francisco, a "sanctuary" city, failed to honor existing warrants and released Sanchez from jail just before he blew Kathy Steinle away.

As serendipity would have it, Trump then went to Phoenix on 12 July and gave a stem winder to a sell-out crowd on the subject of illegal immigration. Senator John McCain was not pleased to have The Donald on Arizona’s front lawn and intemperately called Trump supporters “crazies.” Trump returned fire saying that McCain was no hero.

Here again Trump cut to the quick, pointing out that no one qualifies as a hero because he was shot down or captured. Indeed, being a hostage in North Vietnam is not necessarily heroic either. McCain is thought by some to be a heroic because he refused to accept an early release.

In fact, the Hanoi parole offer was a ruse, a Hobson’s choice, designed to embarrass McCain and his father at CINCPAC.
If McCain took the parole and abandoned his fellow POWs, he would have shamed his father and been ostracized by shipmates. Indeed, had John McCain not been the son and grandson of famous nd victorious, Pacific Command flag officers, no one would have noticed him then or now.

Few of the demagogues who have come to John McCain’s defense could name any of the 600 Vietnam-era POWs other than McCain. McCain is famous today because he, like John Kerry, has parlayed a very average Vietnam military service into a three-decade political sinecure.

We know of 50,000 Vietnam veterans that might be more deserving than John McCain. Unfortunately, they died in a war that generals couldn’t win and politicians couldn’t abide. A body bag seldom gets to play the “hero.”

McCain is no political hero either.
[Ed Note: McCain's return flight to the US following his release from the Hanoi Hilton was unique since there were three armed Military Intelligence Special Agents on board the aircraft to prevent the other former PWs from killing McCain.]

McCain is famously ambiguous on domestic issues like immigration. He is also a Johnny-come-lately to Veterans Administration rot, which has metastasized as long as McCain has been in office. On foreign policy, McCain is a Victoria Nuland era crackpot, supporting East European coups, playing cold warrior, and posturing with neo-Nazis in Kiev. McCain pecks at Putin too because the Senate, like the Obama crew, hasn’t a clue about genuine threats like the ISIS jihad or the latest Islam bomb.

To date, Trump has run a clever campaign. He is chumming, throwing red meat and blood into campaign waters and all the usual suspects are in a feeding frenzy. McCain, the Press, the Left, and the Republican establishment all have something to say about “the Donald". It is truly amazing how cleverly Trump manages to manipulate the establishment.

If you are trying to sell an idea or a candidacy, there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

Who knows where the Trump campaign goes? 
For the moment, he has scored direct hits on Mexico and McCain. With El Capo on the loose again, every time a toilet flushes in Sinaloa, Mexican garbage is likely spill out in Los Angeles, Hollywood, San Francisco, Portland, or Seattle.  Indeed, it’s hard to believe that the Left Coast could survive without cheap labor, pistileros, meth, coke, heroin, or weed. Necrotic immigration and its by-products are ready-made targets for a gunslinger like Trump.

Trump is no bigot. He probably employs more Latinos and Blacks than Enrique Peña Nieto or Barack Obama. In his own way, Donald Trump is both immigrant and POW, a refugee from Queens and still a prisoner of Wharton. The Donald is The Dude, the guy with babes and a role of Benjamins that would choke a shark. He is the wildly successful capitalist that some of us love to hate.

At $337 Million per - a DOD Bargain!  [cdn images]

Before democratic socialism, success and effectiveness were measures of merit.  It doesn’t take much insight to compare Trump’s various enterprises with federal programs.  Public education, banking oversight, public housing slums, poverty doles, veterans fiascos, Internal Revenue hijinks, and even some Defense Department procurement programs are consensus failures.  

The F-35 “Lightning” fighter is an illustration, arguably the most expensive single DOD boondoggle in history. Pentagon progressives seldom win a catfight these days, but they still spend like sailors.

If and when Trump fails, he is out of business.

In Trump’s world, failure has consequences.  In contrast, Washington rewards failure with better funding. Indeed, generational program failure is now a kind of perverse incentive for Beltway politicians and apparatchiks to throw good money after failed programs.

The difference between Trump and McCain should be obvious to any fair observer; Trump has done something with his talents. McCain, in contrast, is coasting on a military myth and resting on the laurels of Senatorial tenure.

Any way you look at it, Donald Trump is good for national politics, good for democracy, good for America , and especially good for candor. If nothing else, The Donald may help Republicans to pull their heads out of that place where the sun never shines.