Pre-war fact:

"Gentlemen don't read each other's mail"

Prior to the formation of the OSS American intelligence services had been conducted on a ad-hoc basis by the various departments of the armed forces with no overall direction or control (for example the Army and the Navy had separate code-breaking departments (Signal Intelligence Service and OP-20-G) that not only competed but refused to share break-throughs. The original code-breaking operation of the State Department, MI8 run by Herbert Yardley, had been shut-down in 1929 by Secretary of State Henry Stimson because "gentlemen don't read each other's mail").



http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office...tegic_Services

http://en2.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Stimson

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