Editing William j. Donovan (section)

==Connection to Operation Gladio==

While Donovan died in 1959, before Operation Gladio’s most documented activities in the 1960s–1980s, his OSS laid the groundwork for NATO’s stay-behind networks.

The OSS trained European resistance groups during WWII, many of which formed the nucleus of Gladio’s anti-communist networks in countries like Italy, France, and Belgium. For example, OSS-trained Italian partisans were later recruited into Gladio.

His active intelligence career ended in 1945, however his covert warfare and anti-communist networks directly influenced the CIA and NATO’s Cold War strategies, including Gladio.  Donovan’s protégés, like [[Allen Dulles]] were instrumental in Gladio’s establishment in the late 1940s, using OSS tactics to create clandestine armies to “counter Soviet influence”.