In Secrecy's Shadow: The OSS and CIA in Hollywood Cinema 1941-1979

During the Second World War hundreds of Hollywood filmmakers under the command of the legendary director John Ford enlisted in the Office of Strategic Services to produce training, reconnaissance and propaganda films. This wartime bond continued into the post-war period, when a number of studios produced films advocating the creation of a permanent peacetime successor to the Office of Strategic Services: what became the Central Intelligence Agency. By the 1960s, however, Hollywood's increasingly irreverent attitude towards the CIA reflected a growing public anxiety about excessive US government secrecy.