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| Julia Child |
The queen of French cuisine Julia Child spied for the American government when the Nazis were rising to power, according to records the National Archives released Thursday.
Child, along with 35,000 others including soldiers, actors, lawyers, professors, athletes and reporters, worked for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to the CIA, established by President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II.
The OSS spy ring studied military plans, created propaganda, infiltrated enemy ranks and stirred resistance among foreign troops, according to 750,000 pages the National Archives released, Fox News reported.
The release of the OSS documents lifts the veil on the short-lived intelligence agency, which was essentially folded into the CIA once President Harry Truman disbanded it in 1945 after the close of the war.
"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."
But Child wasn’t the only rising star associated with the OSS.
Historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., film and television actor Sterling Hayden, Eight is Enough author Thomas Braden, Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg and Miles Copeland, father of The Police drummer Stewart Copeland, were also affiliated with the organization.
For decades, former OSS operatives kept mum about the organization and its work and the release of documents puts an end to more than half a century of secrecy.
"I was told to keep my mouth shut," said Walter Mess, 93, a former member who handled covert OSS operations in Poland and North Africa.
