Wartime celebrity spies listed in secret files

The National Archives have released 750,000 secret documents relating to the Second World War US intelligence service. The Office of Strategic Services archive includes 35,000 personnel files, which includes details of famous figures enlisted. These included the director John Ford, celebrity chef Julia Child, actor Sterling Hayden, baseball player Moe Berg and historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. The sons of ex-President Theodore Roosevelt and author Ernest Hemingway also worked for the OSS, which ran from 1942-45. A statement from the National Archives, which released the files on August 14th, read: ‘The 750,000 pages include initial applications to join the OSS; preliminary training and subsequent work assignments; pay, leave and travel documents; evaluations, basic medical information; and awards, decorations and discharge papers.’