Lessons Learned But Soon Forgotten: The OSS and Insurgency Operations in World War II

Abstract

This project will analyze institutional memory and the failure of the United States Army to capture Lessons Learned by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II in the conduct of insurgency and counterinsurgency operations against the Germans and Japanese. Specifically, institutional expertise regarding the characteristics of insurgencies, cultural understanding, and information operations atrophied following the Second World War; consequently, the significance of human terrain nuances and information operations to insurgency or counterinsurgency success had to be re-discovered in formulating counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 25, 2011
Accession Number
ADA560133

Entities

People

  • Miles A. Davis

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Counterinsurgency
  • Education
  • Enlisted Personnel
  • Ethnic Groups
  • Information Operations
  • Knowledge Management
  • Lessons Learned
  • Military Operations
  • Military Science
  • Organizational Structure
  • Psychological Operations
  • Second World War
  • Students
  • Unconventional Warfare
  • United States
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • History
  • Sociology

Readers

  • Military History / Militaries and War Studies
  • Strategic Security Studies