http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-julia-child-spy-080814-ht,0,5754614.story
Records reveal Julia Child was a World War II-era spy
Tribune wire re****ts
7:35 AM CDT, August 14, 2008
Julia Child explains "with a little practice" you can do everything with
the
flare of a gourmet. She is shown in 1967 file photo during a scene from
"The
French Chef".Child shared a secret with U.S. Supreme Court Justice Arthur
Goldberg and Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg at a time when the Nazis
threatened the world. They served in an international spy ring managed by
the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA created in
World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt. The secret comes out
Thursday,
Aug. 14, 2008, all of the names and previously classified files
identifying
nearly 24,000 spies who formed the U.S.'s first centralized intelligence
effort. The National Archives will make available for the first time all
750,000 pages identifying the vast spy network of military and civilian
operatives. (Anonymous, Associated Press / August 14, 2008)
Before Julia Child became known to the world as a leading chef, she
admitted
at least one failing when applying for a job as a spy: impulsiveness.
Details about Child's background as a government agent come into the
public
spotlight Thursday with the National Archives' release of more than 35,000
top-secret personnel files of World War II-era spies. The CIA held this
information for decades.
The 750,000 do***ents identify the vast spy network managed by the Office
of
Strategic Services, which later became the CIA. President Franklin
Roosevelt
created the OSS, the country's first centralized intelligence operation.
Child's file shows that in her OSS application, she included a note
expressing regret she left an earlier department store job hastily because
she did not get along with her boss, said William Cunliffe, an archivist
who
has worked extensively with the OSS records at the National Archives.
The OSS files offer details about other agents, including Supreme Court
Justice Arthur Goldberg, baseball player Moe Berg, historian Arthur
Schlesinger Jr. and film actor Sterling Hayden.
Other notables identified in the files include John Hemingway, son of
author
Ernest Hemingway; Kermit Roosevelt, son of President Theodore Roosevelt;
and
Miles Copeland, father of Stewart Copeland, drummer for the band The
Police.
Some of those on the list have been identified previously as having worked
for the OSS, but their personnel records never have been available before.
Those records would show why they were hired, jobs they were assigned to
and
perhaps even missions they pursued while working for the agency.
The release of the OSS personnel files unmasks one of the last secrets
from
the short-lived wartime intelligence agency, which for the most part was
later folded into the CIA after President Truman disbanded it in 1945.
"I think it's terrific," said Elizabeth McIntosh, 93, a former OSS agent
now
living in Woodbridge, Virginia. "They've finally, after all these years,
they've gotten the names out. All of these people had been told never to
mention they were with the OSS."
The CIA long resisted releasing the records. But a former CIA director,
William Casey, himself an OSS veteran, cleared the way for transfer of
millions of OSS do***ents to the National Archives when he took over the
spy
agency in 1981. The personnel files are the latest do***ents to be made
public.
Information about OSS involvement was so guarded that relatives often
could
not confirm a family member's work with the group.
Walter Mess, who handled covert OSS operations in Poland and North Africa,
said he kept quiet for more than 50 years, only recently telling his wife
of
62 years about his OSS activity.
"I was told to keep my mouth shut," said Mess, now 93 and living in Falls
Church, Virginia.
The files provide new information even for those most familiar with the
agency. Charles Pinck, president of the OSS Society created by former OSS
agents and their relatives, said the nearly 24,000 employees included in
the
archives far exceed previous estimates of 13,000.
The newly released do***ents will clarify these and other issues, Cunliffe
said.
"We're saying the OSS was a lot bigger than they were saying," he said.
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