Allen W. Dulles

In 1941, at the age of 48, he was appointed to lead the New York office of the Coordinator of Information, a predecessor to the OSS. In November 1942, on an OSS mission, he was sent to Europe to take over wartime intelligence operations. According to declassified documents in his file, Dulles organized what became "the foremost unit for espionage in the annals of under-cover operations conducted in connection with the United States Army."

Dulles left the OSS and went back to practicing law in New York City before returning to intelligence work with the CIA. He became the CIA's director in 1953.

From a formerly secret document in Dulles's personnel file: "As early as August 1943 he warned that the enemy had set up an experimental laboratory at Peenemunde, northern Germany, for the testing of a so-called rocket bomb. Only after repeated insistence on Mr. Dulles' part was the British Air Ministry convinced that such experiments were actually in progress, and on pin points furnished by him, the RAF carried out the first important raid on Peenemunde two weeks later. . . . Mr. Dulles intercepted the orders for the scuttling of the French fleet at Toulon and reported this information promptly to the proper services. Well in advance of the operation, he reported information from a high source, to the effect that the Italian fleet could be depended upon to surrender a large part of its vessels."