acquire territories in Europe and elsewhere. The war officially began
with Germany’s attack on Poland on 1 September 1939 and ended on
9 May 1945 with Germany’s surrender.
The United States entered World War II immediately after the sur-
prise Japanese attack on Pearl Harboron 7 December 1941 and
fought alongside its European allies in the European and the Pacific
theaters until the end of the war. It led the “D-Day” invasion and
spearheaded the drive into Germany that, together with the Soviet
push from the East, culminated in Germany’s capitulation. While the
fighting in Europe stopped upon Germany’s surrender, the war con-
tinued for the United States in the Pacific until Japan’s surrender fol-
lowing the dropping of atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hi-
roshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively.
Because of the war in Europe, President Franklin D.Roosevelt
had authorized the establishment of the coordinator of information
(COI) position in 1941 to coordinate intelligence information for the
United States government. Its director, William J.Donovan, was ap-
pointed to head the newly established Office of Strategic Services
(OSS) in early 1942. The OSS conducted sabotage and guerrilla war-
fare operations in all theaters of the global conflict, but there is gen-
eral disagreement among historians about its contributions to the war
effort. At the end of the war, President Harry S.Trumandisbanded
the OSS, but its veterans later formed the core of the Central Intel-
ligence Agency(CIA) when it was established in 1947.– Y –
YARDLEY, HERBERT O. (1889–1958).Herbert Yardley is generally
regarded as the father of American cryptology. Born in Indiana, Yard-
ley moved to Washington, D.C., in 1912 where he obtained work as a
telegrapher and code clerk in the Department of State. Working on his
own and with no formal training, Yardley was able to break the codes
used by the department. When the United States entered World War I,
Yardley convinced the head of military intelligence to have him as-
signed to the War Department, where he was put in charge of MI-8, and
a newly created cryptological section of military intelligence. Under his
supervision, MI-8 succeeded in breaking most of the codes used in Ger-
man diplomatic and army communications and established new codes222 • YARDLEY, HERBERT O.05-398 (2) Dictionary.qxd 10/20/05 6:27 AM Page 222