Abstract for 2008 Honors Colloquium
Jenny Hoover
History
"Secrets in Switzerland: How great was Allen Dulles' impact as OSS Station Chief in Bern on the developments of World War II and American power in post-war Europe?"
From 1942 to 1945, Allen Dulles headed the Office of Strategic Services' station in Bern. In this position, he provided the U.S. Government with thousands of top-secret documents, key connections to resistance groups, assessments of conditions behind enemy lines, and a negotiated surrender of over a million German troops. In my thesis, I address the significance of Dulles' activities in Bern to the war effort and the defeat of the Nazis. I also analyze whether Dulles and the U.S. used intelligence just to win the war or if they used it as a means of establishing American dominance in post-war Europe.
