[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10544-10545]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




COMMEMORATION OF THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE OFFICE OF 
                           STRATEGIC SERVICES

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 23, 2002, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns) is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, in the summer of 1942, we were deeply 
embroiled in war. Our leaders saw that it was imperative that we 
institute a formal intelligence service, so on June 13, 1942, we 
established the Office of Strategic Services, OSS, considered to be the 
precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency.
  As we sit here in the summer of 2002, 60 years ago this week, we are 
again at war, and I want to commemorate the OSS on what would be its 
60th anniversary. Whether we call it intelligence, reconnaissance, 
collection, espionage, or simply spying, as a former Air Force 
intelligence officer myself, I recognize the critical function of this 
agency in winning wars.
  One of the recipes for success in the OSS was its diverse inclusion 
of operatives. It was modeled after England's intelligence agency. 
Accordingly, Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming of British Naval 
Intelligence, the same Mr. Fleming who went on to create the world's 
most famous fictitious secret agent, James Bond, had this rather stodgy 
advice for OSS Director William ``Wild Bill'' Donovan: ``Pick men in 
their forties and fifties, possessing absolute discretion, sobriety, 
devotion to duty, languages, and wide experience.'' However, Mr. 
Donovan had the insight to look more broadly. He selected younger, 
recklessly daring men and women; pro athletes, missionaries, reformed 
gangsters, professional counterfeiters, journalists, movie stars, 
Hollywood stuntmen, and singers.
  I would like today to commend some outstanding contributions from 
women in the OSS. Arlington National Cemetery has an excellent exhibit, 
now until December 2002, called Clandestine Women: The Untold Story of 
Women in Espionage. From this, we learn that 4,500 women served in the 
OSS during World War II. Besides spies, they worked as saboteurs, 
cryptographers, propaganda experts, and guerilla warriors. They also 
contributed as secretaries, as clerks, and as drivers.
  But let me begin with just one employee I thought would be of great 
interest to my colleagues, Julia McWilliams. She was a patriotic woman 
who wished to serve the United States Navy, but was rejected because of 
her height. She was 6-2. Instead, she got a job in East Asia with the 
OSS and was eventually awarded the Emblem of Meritorious Civilian 
Service. Ms. McWilliams was instrumental in creating a shark repellent. 
Sharks proved problematic for Navy and OSS divers trying to bomb German 
U-boats. Years later, NASA used her shark repellent recipe to protect 
astronauts whose capsules landed in shark-infested waters.
  Ms. McWilliams married a diplomat, Paul Child. The couple moved to 
France, where Julia took cooking classes that would change the face of 
American dining. Today we can all be grateful for Julia Child's gift to 
America both in intelligence and as a French chef.
  Another brave and resourceful American woman was Virginia Hall, the 
``Limping Lady of the OSS.'' Her nickname came from a wooden leg due to 
a prewar hunting accident. This Baltimore native worked tirelessly for 
the French resistance. Hall was highly educated and multilingual. She 
learned Morse code and how to work a wireless radio, which made her 
indispensable to the OSS because communication lines were destroyed 
after D-Day. She engaged in guerilla and subversive activities, placing 
her own life in danger for the salvation of France.
  Hall is the only civilian female to receive the Distinguished Service 
Cross, and after World War II became one of the CIA's first female 
operations officers. When President Truman himself offered to present 
the award to her, she declined to return to the States on the grounds 
that she was just too busy, too busy in intelligence work to leave 
France at that critical time.
  Finally, also working behind the lines of occupied France not for the 
OSS, but for the French resistance, and therefore for the benefit of 
all Allied forces, was the American expatriate Josephine Baker. A 
talented and beautiful African American singer, this Missouri native 
became a French citizen. Still permitted to perform her shows around 
Europe by the occupying Nazis, Josephine craftily used this freedom to 
travel as a tool of transferring secret documents. Most courageously, 
she even smuggled classified material in her sheet music to Allied 
collaborators in Portugal. French President Charles de Gaulle presented 
her the Legion of Honor, which was France's highest decoration. She was 
also awarded the Medal of the Resistance with Rosette, and named a 
Chevalier of the Legion of Honor by the French government for hard work 
and dedication. At her death, the French government honored her with a 
21-gun salute, making Josephine Baker the first American woman buried 
in France with military honors.
  So I commend, Mr. Speaker, these and all the dedicated valiant women 
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the OSS, without whom Europe and the world may not exist in its present 
state. I also call my colleagues' attention to the book ``The Secret 
War'' by Francis Russell, if they are interested in learning more about 
the details of this great agency as well as the women who participated.

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