Bill Donovan was the founder of the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) which was the World War II forerunner of today's CIA (Central Intelligence Agency).

Waller traces Donovan's life from childhood to death, but the majority of the book focuses on the OSS and World War II. He relates Donovan's childhood in Buffalo, NY and shows it shaped him as an adult. He then details Donovan's business, military, and political career showing the connections he made and networking he developed that would be important later on.

Alongside this is the tale of Donovan's family life, one of almost constant separation, absent parenthood, and tragedy.

Waller details Donovan's skills and shortcomings as a leader and how both pushed the OSS ahead and held it back, leading to mistakes. At the same time, the book also shows just how fragmented and chaotic US intelligence efforts during World War II were; it also details the political and personal conflicts that kept intelligence efforts divided. ( )

An extensively researched and written book about the head of the OSS, which was created during WWII. The author gives full credit to everything that Wild Bill Donovan accomplished, but also was not afraid to point out his significant flaws as an individual. The almost-obsessive involvement that Donovan had in the OSS’s activities in the field clearly had some inhibitive effects, and ruined any chance of a family life and marriage, but his involvement also ended up helping to create the template for the CIA to be formed after the war’s end. Donovan also went through some tragedies involving his family which softens the criticism to some extent.
What is clearly discussed in the book is the infighting between the different service branches that wanted their own intelligence services along with J. Edgar Hoover’s attempts to stop Donovan so Hoover could himself have the power, control and glory of the intelligence world. True to form, Hoover created false stories, spied on the OSS and tried to build his own empire to disrupt Donovan’s efforts. I was aware that Hoover created problems for many people in the US, but his involvement in trying to stop Donovan was a new storyline to me. Just gives more reason to despise what Hoover did. ( )

Quick! Name the current head of the CIA. Even if you could do it, you probably had to think about it. Today's spy chiefs keep a low profile.

Not so "Wild Bill" Donovan, chosen by FDR to head the CIA's predecessor, the Office for Strategic Services (OSS) during World War II. Donovan was a pretty flamboyant character, regularly appeared in Washington's gossip columns even during the war. A winner of the Medal of Honor (though he had to lobby for it) for his heroism in World War I, a successful trial lawyer, prosecutor of bootleggers and candidate for New York governor, he led a dynamic and colorful life even before his OSS service.

There are probably plenty of stories that are to be told about these pre-war identities of his, but this book wisely reserves its bulk for Donovan's wartime work. And there are certainly stories here. Despite heading up the nation's intelligence service, Donovan didn't feel that should keep him far from the action. He itched to go ashore with the troops during amphibious landings, and though he was expressly forbidden to do that on D-Day, found a way to get on the beach soon after the first assault. Within hours, he was pinned down by a German machine gun nest. One shudders to think what could have happened if the nation's spy chief fell captive to the Nazis!

The reader is left to draw his own conclusions. The biographer, Douglas Waller, narrates Donovan's life straightforwardly without sensation or hyperbole. But the era was filled with big personalities, and Donovan was one of them. ( )

Great charisma, accomplishments, creativity, and courage defined Wild Bill Donovan. Medal of Honor winner as well as several other top awards. His vision for his spy agency deeply impacted the CIA and what and who they became.

He, like many people, also had some deep flaws. He was not faithful to his wife leading or at least contributing to their estrangement while married, and her deep unhappiness. Very sad. ( )