The OSS Simple Sabotage Field Manual: How WWII Bureaucratic Sabotage Tactics Became Modern Corporate Practice

Summary

This article discusses the "Simple Sabotage Field Manual" published by the OSS (precursor to the CIA) in 1944, which was originally designed to teach citizens in occupied territories how to sabotage Nazi operations through subtle, bureaucratic means. The re-publication by the Alephic team highlights the uncomfortable realization that these sabotage techniques—such as insisting on doing everything through proper channels, making multiple copies of everything, and referring to committees—have become standard operating procedures in modern corporations. The manual's instructions for organizational sabotage through excessive bureaucracy, red tape, and inefficiency now read like a management consultant's playbook for corporate dysfunction.