Along with Robinson, the OSS persuaded a number of established and younger scholars from the American academic community to set up shop in Washington and contribute to the war effort from behind their books and research notes rather than on the front lines of battle. In organizing the Research and Analysis Branch-or R&A as it became known-Donovan put together the heart of the OSS intelligence gathering operation. Following the war, Alfred McCormack, then Special Assistant to the Secretary of State in charge of research and intelligence, characterized R&A as "the outfit whose business it is . . . to turn information into intelligence-to take the mass of incoming material and get the truth out of it." That task, he contended, "is the critical and vital phase of intelligence work.