Strategic Services Unit

{{Short description|US intelligence organization of the 1940s}}

{{More citations needed|date=January 2013}}

The Strategic Services Unit was an intelligence agency of the United States government that existed in the immediate post–World War II period. It was created from the Secret Intelligence and Counter-Espionage branches of the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS).

Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy was instrumental in preserving and maintaining the two branches of the OSS with a view to forming a permanent peace-time intelligence agency. The unit was established on October 1, 1945, through Executive Order 9621, which simultaneously abolished the OSS.{{cite web |author=Michael Warner |date=15 April 2007 |title=Salvage and Liquidation: The Creation of the Central Intelligence Group |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/96unclass/salvage-and-liquidation.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613113732/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/96unclass/salvage-and-liquidation.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 13, 2007}} The SSU was headed by General John Magruder.Peer de Silva (1978). Sub Rosa: The CIA and the Uses of Intelligence, p. 4 (Magruder at OSS, SSU).John Ranelagh (1986). The Agency. pp. 100–101 (Magruder at OSS, SSU).Thomas Powers (1979). The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA. p. 28 (Magruder at SSU).

In January 1946, a new National Intelligence Authority (NIA) was established along with a small Central Intelligence Group (CIG).

On April 2, 1946, the Strategic Services Unit was transferred to the new group as the Office of Special Operations (OSO) and a transfer of personnel began immediately.

In 1947, the Central Intelligence Agency was established under the 1947 National Security Act, incorporating the Central Intelligence Group. In August 1952, the Office of Special Operations was combined with the Office of Policy Coordination to form the Directorate of Plans.