Libraries

When President Truman disbanded the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) by Executive order 9621 of September 20, 1945, the Research and Analysis (R & A) Branch of OSS became part of the State Department and was renamed the Interim Research and Intelligence Service (IRIS) and headed by U.S. Army Colonel Alfred McCormack. IRIS was later renamed the Bureau of Intelligence and Research. The R&A Branch continued to prepare reports and studies as it had since its beginning under the predecessor of OSS, the Office of the Coordinator of Information (established in July 11, 1941). This effort lasted until 1961 when this single series of numbered intelligence reports was discontinued.

The reports are arranged numerically with various office symbols preceding the numbers. The reports vary from short memorandums to detailed, documented studies. The topics also vary from individual commodities or countries to the economic and political characteristics of whole regions. Numbers were issued when the reports were assigned Thus the dates of the completed reports are not in sequence, and not all were completed; there are gaps.