ARCANISSIMUM
 
                    I.R.I.S.
 
                                   Ultimum
 
 
 
My dear General Donovan:
 
     I appreciate very much the work which you and your staff undertook, beginning prior to
the Japanese surrender, to liquidate those wartime activities of the Office of Strategic Services
which will not be needed in time of peace.
 
     Timely steps should also be taken to conserve those resources and skills developed within
your organization which are vital to our peacetime purposes.
 
     Accordingly, I have today directed, by executive order, that the activities of the research
and analysis brach and the presentation branch of the Office of Strategic Services be transferred to
the State Department.  This transfer, which is effective as of Oct. 1, 1945, represents the
beginning of the development of a coordinated system of foreign intelligence within the
permament framework of the government.
 
     Consistent with the foregoing, the executive order provides for the transfer of the
remaining activities of the Office of Strategic Services to the War Department; for the abolition of
the Office of Strategic Services; and for the continued orderly liquidation of the office without
interrupting other services of a military nature the need for which will continue for some time.
 
     I want to take this occasion to thank you for the capable leadership you have brought to a
vital wartime activity in your capacity as Director of Strategic Services.  You may wel find
satisfaction in the achievements of the office and take pride in your own contribution to them. 
These are in themselves great rewards.  Great additional reward for your efforts should lie in the
knowledge that the peacetime intelligence services of the government are being erected on the
foundation of the facilities and resources mobilized through the Office of Strategic Services
during the war.
 
                              Sincerely yours,
     
                              Harry S. Truman
 
 
My dear Mr. Secretary:
 
     I have today signed an executive order which provides for the transfer to the State
Department of the functions, personnel and other resources of the research and analysis branch
and the presentation branch of the Office of Strategic Services.  The order also transfers the
remaining activities of the Office of Strategic Services to the War Department and abolishes that
office.  These changes become effective Oct. 1, 1945. 
 
                    ARCANISSIMUM