Community Corner

Washington Post Profiles Two OSS Women Agents

Great Story Intertwined with the Early History of Our Secret Neighbor

The Washington Post has a wonderful story this morning about two women who worked for the OSS and later for the CIA.

Betty McIntosh, 96, and Doris Bohrer, 88, were among the few women who worked for the agency in its infant years.

In the early 1940s, Bohrer and McIntosh fell into jobs at the Office of Strategic Services, the nation’s first intelligence agency, created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and led by William “Wild Bill” Donovan, a Wall Street lawyer and World War I veteran. They were among the rarest of operatives, women working overseas during World War II, The Post said.

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In China, McIntosh, a “black propaganda” specialist, whipped up fake news stories to undermine the morale of the enemy — including an effort to convince the Japanese emperor’s soldiers that their wives were procreating with other men back home. Stationed in Italy, Bohrer analyzed aerial photographs of Germany, helping select sites to air drop and rescue OSS officers behind enemy lines, acccording to The Post.

They never knew each other at the agency but they are now neighbors on the same street in the Westminster at Lake Ridge seniors’ village in Prince William County.

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They still don't talk much about their missions.

You can read more CIA history here.


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