#7
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I may always have the song "Secret Agent Man" running through my head when I see Julia on tv from now on...

Documents: Julia Child part of WWII-era spy ring

By BRETT J. BLACKLEDGE and RANDY HERSCHAFT, Associated Press

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.
"Ponder well on this point: the pleasant hours of our life are all connected, by a more or less tangible link, with some memory of the table."-Charles Pierre Monselet, French author(1825-1888)
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#8
  OT-Well kinda not off topic firechef I may always have th...
It's been pretty well known, for at least a few years, that Julia Child and her husband originally met because they were spies, together, in China. In fact, it was mentioned quite a bit at the time of her death in 2004, including, for example, on A & E Biography. So, when I saw this story on the news services, yesterday, I wondered why her name was so prominent. The OSS involvement of Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and Sterling Hayden have also been public knowledge for some time. I guess the main point of the news story was not so much the specific people, but the declassification of the OSS files, in general, which actually open up the details about such people.
If blueberry muffins have blueberries in them, what do vegan muffins have?
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#9
  Re: OT-Well kinda not off topic labradors It's been pretty wel...
I'd be interested if Judith Jones and/or James Beard are on that list. After reading Tenth Muse and Julia's Life in France, I was curious about how certain people and place overlapped, even before Julia ever met Judith or Beard. Their similar experiences in France at the time were just too coincidental.

Like Labs said, I had heard this mentioned before. As a matter of fact, it just aired on Fox News briefly a few minutes ago. I'd love to see that list though. I've got an uncle I've always been curious about. He would have been very young, but he was in the military at the time.
Daphne
Keep your mind wide open.
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OT-Well kinda not off topic


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