Office of Strategic Service Documents and Photographs Group

The group is comprised of documents and photographs relating to the World War II service of Lieutenant Colonel Edwin Clarence Lee, who served in the Office of Strategic Services and in the ETO with the 12th Army Group as a General Staff Officer in the position of Executive Officer of G-2 (Military Intelligence) in the Headquarters of the 12th Army Group. The group includes the following items:

– Office of Strategic Services certificate of service in World War II, together with the cover letter bearing the printed signature of William Donovan. The certificate is approximately 8-1/4 inches by 10-1/2 inches.

– 12th Army Group award document for the Bronze Star, approximately 7-1/8 inches by 10-3/8 inches.

– A 1946 memorandum to the Adjutant General, advising that Le has been awarded the Luxembourg Grand Ducal National Ordre de la Couronne de Chene (Order of the Oak Crown).

– A 1946 memorandum to the Adjutant General, advising that Le has been awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre with Palm.

– A 1945 photograph depicting Lee being decorated by a French officer with the French Croix de Guerre. Approximately 8 inches by 9-3/4 inches.

– A portrait photograph of Lee, approximately 8 inches by 9-7/8 inches, inscribed and signed by Lee.

– Two commissions as a Lieutenant Colonel, forwarded to Lee after the end of the war by the War Department.

The materials are in very good condition. Interestingly, an internet search of the terms “Edwin C. Lee” together with “CIA” located an internal CIA memo that was written in 1951 by Allen Dulles, then Deputy Director of Central Intelligence, to an individual whose identity was deleted from the document. The document was declassified by the CIA in 2002. In this memo, Dulles informs the recipient that “I just had a note from a good friend of mine, Lt. Col. Edwin C. Lee, G-3, Sec., GHQ. FEC.”, and Dulles informs the recipient that Lee was taking a military assignment at a location that was also deleted from the declassified document. Dulles wrote that “Bill Lee and I worked together very closely during the Washington Days and he was most helpful to me in connection with my contacts with General Bradley’s staff of the 12th Army. I should like to have you get to know him and I am sure you will find him a man who will work most closely with us in case his line of work has any bearing on ours”. While Lee had been serving in the ETO as the Executive Director of Intelligence of the 12th Army Group, Dulles was the Chief of OSS operations in Switzerland, running one of the most important OSS stations of the war. The fact that he considered Colonel Lee a “good friend” is certainly interesting. Dulles would go on to serve as Director of Central Intelligence, and the career of Colonel Lee certainly seems to warrant further research.