The American academic community and United States-Soviet Union relations: The research and analysis branch and its legacy, 1941-1947

This dissertation examines the role played by scholars in the USSR Division of the Research and Analysis Branch (R&A) of the Office of Strategic Services in the development of strategic intelligence on the Soviet Union. Primarily, this study analyzes the organization and work of the USSR Division during the period 1941-45. Furthermore, it assesses the influence of R&A in the creation of a permanent national intelligence agency in the postwar period and evaluates the Division's legacy in the State Department in 1946-47. It also suggests that the university-government relationship established in R&A's USSR Division provided the foundation for its continuance in the Russian studies programs founded at Columbia and Harvard Universities after the war.; As an active participant in the government's debate on US-Soviet relations, the USSR Division developed a comprehensive framework for American policy toward the Soviets. Its analysts advocated cooperation based on national self-interest, spheres of influence, and realpolitik. While the Division supplied intelligence to a variety of federal agencies, their two most important clients were the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the State Department. The Division's assessment of the USSR and postwar planning represented the earliest stage of strategic intelligence analysis and estimates.; The success of R&A, particularly the USSR Division, influenced the evolution of postwar intelligence. The decision to place R&A in the State Department precipitated a fierce debate over whether it would be a semi-independent centralized unit, or have its members scattered throughout the Department's existing offices. These arguments prompted the military and President Truman to abandon the idea that the State Department would lead a national intelligence organization. In addition, bureaucratic wrangling over the future home and functions of R&A raised the increasingly important issue of the relationship between intelligence analysis and policy formation. While bureaucratic rivalry and ideological differences with the Department's career officers led many R&A scholars to return to academia, the university-government relationship forged in R&A continued on college campuses, particularly in the Russian studies programs at Columbia and Harvard.