What Did They Know? And When Did They Know It?—Wesleyan Connections to the OSS and CIA

America’s curiosity about classified information, its fascination with the intelligence community, and its suspicion of spies among us have never been stronger than in today’s post-9/11 society. With conflicts escalating around the world and terrorists our new enemy, we wonder what role members of America’s intelligence agencies and the secrets they harbor play in policy decision making. To understand how this environment of intelligence gathering began and how it affects what we know, what we want to know, and what we may never know, we bring together former members of the CIA and its precursor, the OSS, to discuss their work as intelligence officers from World War II to the present.

Presenters: Charles A. Briggs ’49, retired Executive Director, CIA; William Corvo ’73, President, William Corvo Consultants, and former Vice President, Veterans of OSS; Martin S. Quigley P’73, P’77, P’82, GP’02, GP’04, writer and educator, OSS Strategic Intelligence Division, 1942-1945 (undercover in Ireland, 1943, and Italy, 1944-45); David W. Forden ’52, Career Office, CIA Directorate for Operations, former Chief of the Soviet/East European Division