If the OSS was established in the 1940's, then what was the name of its predecessor?

Question

Surely, there must have been an intelligence organization even before the OSS was established? In Russia, for example, there was an agency called Okhranka in the 19th century, which was the predecessor of the VCHK (that's how the KGB's predecessor was called). There must have been a similar organization in the US.

Answer 1

Nope, not really, though your history of Russian Intel is very accurate, with the provision that Okhrana/Cheka/NKVD etc was actually more concerned with what we would now call "Counterintelligence". In the US, that's the bailiwick of the FBI..
Up until the formation of the OSS, Treasury, State and the Army/Navy had their own intelligence services.
In fact, one of the reasons for the intelligence about Japanese intentions slipping through the cracks, was the lack of an overarching intelligence apparatus to analyze and discuss the information from these disparate sources.
The OSS is copied from the British wartime "Special Operations Executive SOE". After the war, fears of "another Pearl Harbor" led to the reinstatement of the OSS (which was actually deactivated), as the CIA.

Answer 2

There was none. Before the OSS, American intelligence had been an ad-hoc enterprise carried out by a variety of departments, including State, Treasury, Army, Navy, and War. The situation persisted somewhat even after the formation of the OSS; for example, intelligence work in the Western Hemisphere was handled largely by the FBI, while Army Intelligence and Navy Intelligence fought hard to retain their independence from the OSS.

Answer 3

No, there was not. First of all, prior to WW2, the US was heavily influenced by the isolationist movement. A foreign intelligence service doesn't mesh well with that.

The Russian example brings up another point. (I won't go into how you need to do a bit of pounding of square pegs into round holes to say that Okhranka/VCHK/KGB fit in the same family. The Okhranka for example, was far closer to Hitler's Gestapo or the Iranian Shah's Savvak.) In the 19th century, what involvement did the US have in continental European affairs? That's right, nothing. And there was no other area of major concern prior to the 20th century or even well into the 20th century. The myth of the "stopping power of water" was still in effect. And you didn't need a intelligence services to successfully invade Haiti or establish Panama.

Answer 4

There was no unified service. Each service had its own intelligence department. Probably closest thing to the OSS was MI-8, also sometimes called "The American Black Chamber," a code-breaking outfit headed by Herbert O. Yardley (later more famous as the author of "The Education of A Poker Player). The links below may be helpful.

Answer 5

the okhrana was a secret police not an inteligence gathering organization
they did not spy on other countries but rather on their own people
the oss was teh first organization of its kind..

actually.. that is not true. the oldest secret service is that of the Vatican.. yes they have one