The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was not the CIA, though it served as the direct institutional predecessor and historical blueprint for the Central Intelligence Agency. Operating primarily during World War II, the OSS was dissolved shortly after the war ended in 1945, with its personnel and operational responsibilities later divided between the Department of State and the War Department. In 1947, the U.S. government enacted the National Security Act, which officially established the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to handle peacetime foreign intelligence collection and covert operations.