Julia Child: Renowned Chef, WWII Spy

Child Among Thousands Who Secretly Gathered Wartime Intel For CIA's Predecessor

(AP)  Famed chef Julia Child shared a secret with 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 full secret comes out Thursday, all of the names and previously classified files identifying nearly 24,000 spies who formed the first centralized intelligence effort by the United States. The National Archives, which this week released a list of the names found in the records, will make available for the first time all 750,000 pages identifying the vast spy network of military and civilian operatives.

They were soldiers, actors, historians, lawyers, athletes, professors, reporters. But for several years during World War II, they were known simply as the OSS. They studied military plans, created propaganda, infiltrated enemy ranks and stirred resistance among foreign troops.

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.

Among the more than 35,000 OSS personnel files are applications, commendations and handwritten notes identifying young recruits who, like Child, Goldberg and Berg, earned greater acclaim in other fields - Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a historian and special assistant to President Kennedy; Sterling Hayden, a film and television actor whose work included a role in "The Godfather"; and Thomas Braden, an author whose "Eight Is Enough" book inspired the 1970s television series.

Other notables identified in the files include John Hemingway, son of author Ernest Hemingway; Quentin and Kermit Roosevelt, sons of President Theodore Roosevelt, and Miles Copeland, father of Stewart Copeland, drummer for the band The Police.

The release of the OSS personnel files uncloaks one of the last secrets from the short-lived wartime intelligence agency, which for the most part later was 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, Va. "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 had resisted releasing OSS records for decades. But former CIA Director William Casey, himself an OSS veteran, cleared the way for transfer of millions of OSS documents to the National Archives when he took over the agency in 1981. The personnel files are the latest to be made public.

Information about OSS involvement was so guarded that relatives often couldn't 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, Va.

The files will offer 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 exceeds previous estimates of 13,000.

The newly released documents will clarify these and other issues, said William Cunliffe, an archivist who has worked extensively with the OSS records at the National Archives.

"We're saying the OSS was a lot bigger than they were saying," Cunliffe said.

[gatofeo]

My mother fought in the Belgian Resistance in World War II. She was twice imprisoned by the Gestapo at St. Gilles Prison, in Brussels.
Her first husband, a Belgian Resistance leader, was captured by the Germans and thrown into Breendonk torture camp, near Brussels. After enduring more than a year of Hell, he was shipped to Frankfurt, Germany and executed -- two weeks before D-Day.
As members of the Belgian Resistance, they were trained and assisted by the OSS and British Intelligence.
After the Battle of the Bulge she met my father, an American G.I. After the war, she came to America, married and spent her remaining years in Washington state.
I''m 53 years old. Mom has been dead for 25 years (cancer).
Thank God for the brave, sacrificing members of the OSS and other intelligence agencies. They saved millions from decades of slavery, death, degradation and abuse.
But the fight continues. Evil prospers all over the world because the post-Peacenik generations believe that Love and Peace conquer Evil. This has never been true and it never will be.
Evil is vanquished by Confrontation, the show of Force or, as a last resort, the use of Force.
I haven''t met a young person in the last 30 years who possesses 1/10th of the self-sacrifice exhibited by the men and women of World War II and Korea, in and out of uniform.

[tootall10142]

hey betty how much do you charge?Your mothers rates are out of style im sure?

[babooph]

Oss was closed due to most of its best being communists-Fbi was kept intact ,its top 2 just being Gay,oh well.

[Netterz]

I hope some of the posters here grow up, and realize that the cushy lives they lead, along with the spewing hatred they choose to share, owe there very lives to the very people who have given either ALL or most of there own lives, FREEDOM IS NOT FREE. I would like to see the spoiled brats of today try and live thru a REAL Depression, where they have no Cell phones,Ipods, internet, and XBox 360''s, and stand in line with green stamps in there hands all day, trying to get by on rationed food, rationed electricity, the only news you got was from everyone sitting around the radio during a certain time, to know what was coming. Those of us who lived thru those hard time remember all too well the pain, tragedy, and hardships of what freedom cost. We all owe our very lives to the selfless people who had more guts than most people alive today, other than those who have already, or are now protecting your freedoms.

[downsteamjim]

To lastdance: Get your bottled water and put foil on your windows. Get undreground so the black helicopters cannot find you. Obiewan you are our only hope.

[seafang]

Most of you children masquerading here as intelligent adults, will never know how much you owe to those OSS operatives; nor why they were willing to take the risks to leave this country to you undeserving slobs.

Now maybe some people who have earned our thanks can get it. At least from people who understand the price of freedom. RETIRED NAVY

[libsluv2spit]

for these people who are so suspicious of the govt..oh why oh why would at every endevour would you guys want the govt. to dicate our lives..from what we eat to what we do..to how i drive my car to what i think..to what i can say to somebody..

come on people..

[libsluv2spit]

Think they better look into the bush family they aini saints ya know.


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Posted by BarbaraM99 at 12:05 PM : Aug 14, 2008
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and who can say they are or were saints..can you?

[libsluv2spit]

And what ever happened to Lance Lot Link Secret Chimp?



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Posted by Impeach__w at 03:52 PM : Aug 14, 2008
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it found a mule and had you..