ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Office of Strategic Services

Okay kiddo, are you ready to learn about the Office of Strategic Services? This was a team of very special people who worked to help protect our country during a big war a long time ago.

The Office of Strategic Services, often called the OSS for short, was like a secret spy club formed by the United States government during World War II. Their job was to gather information, often secret information, about other countries and their militaries to help the US win the war.

Now, do you know what a spy is? A spy is someone who sneaks around and listens to conversations, reads secret messages, and does anything they can to learn what another country's leaders are planning. The OSS agents were like expert spies.

In addition to gathering information about enemies, the OSS also helped plan and execute important missions to sabotage enemy operations, rescue prisoners of war, and sometimes even helped train friendly forces to fight better. They did all of this while being very careful not to get caught by the enemy.

Once the war was won, the OSS was no longer needed. However, their work was very important and is still remembered today. In fact, after the war, the OSS became the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) we now know today.