Julia Child, Spy

BEFORE WEDNESDAY’S GOOGLE DOODLE, BEFORE HER TV SHOWS, AND BEFORE SHE MOVED TO PARIS, JULIA CHILD WORKED FOR THE AGENCY THAT WOULD BECOME THE CIA

Source: Dateline Zero

Julia Child, remembered today as the charming cook with an unmistakably lilting voice, worked for many years at the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA. Throughout World War II, the OSS ran America’s intelligence operations and controlled a network of spies around the world.

In addition to Child, other notable names who acted as OSS operatives included future Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr., baseball star Moe Berg and actor Sterling Hayden. Many files have been released via the U.S. National Archives, and can be downloaded here:www.archives.gov/research/arc/topics/oss-personnel. Just scroll down toward the bottom of tha page, and view OSS files on Child (her maiden name was McWilliams), Arthur Goldberg, and others.

After Pearl Harbor, Julia McWilliams (her birth name) tried to join the Navy. But she was turned down because, at 6 feet, 2 inches, she was considered too tall. Child’s height may have actually made her stand out at OSS. During her interview, the OSS rep noted, “Good impression, pleasant, alert, capable, very tall.” Thus, Child’s height may have helped her land the job.

Author Bob Spitz pays tribute to Americas’ first culinary queen in a book, which will be in stores on Aug. 15, titled Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child. He insists that Child was not a spy, according to CTV News.

“She knew the names of all the spies in Southeast Asia, but she herself was no spy,” he said.
During her postings in Asia, she met Paul Child, another civil servant. The couple fell in love and married in 1946.

Perhaps Child wasn’t “a spy,” in the James Bond or George Smiley sense of the word. But it seems that her position wasn’t completely mundane, either.

In interviews, Child always played down her wartime achievements. She was just “a clerk.” But her husband told a different story, according to Chris Gaylord, writing at CS Monitor.

Paul Child wrote to his brother about her high-level clearance. She was actually “privy to all messages both incoming from the field or Washington, etc., and outgoing to our agents and operatives all over China-Burma-India.”

Biographer Noël Riley Fitch says that Child’s intelligence work actually helped create the future celebrity chief. The OSS introduced her to Paul and he introduced her the joy of “real” cooking. A California upbringing had tricked her into thinking that meals came from cans and freezers. Working in China opened her eyes.

“American food in China was terrible; we thought it was cooked by grease monkeys,” Childs wrote. “The Chinese food was wonderful, and we ate out as often as we could. That is when I became interested in food. I just loved Chinese food.”

Read original post at Dateline Zero