VOICE ONE:
Throughout American history, women have aided the United Statesand its allies by spying. A show organized by the National Women’sHistory Museum tells about these female intelligence agents. I’mSarah Long.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Shirley Griffith. We report about women spies on the VOASpecial English program, THIS IS AMERICA.
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VOICE ONE:
Thousands of women have served as intelligence agents for theUnited States and its allies since the nation began. The NationalWomen’s History Museum tells about some of these women. The show iscalled “Clandestine Women: The Untold Stories of Women inEspionage.”
Many people are visiting this exhibit in Arlington, Virginia,near Washington, D.C. It will be shown through December at the Womenin Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington Cemetery.
VOICE TWO:
The exhibit especially honors the sixtieth anniversary of theOffice of Strategic Services. This was America’s first centralorganization for gathering intelligence. The office served duringWorld War Two. It was established on June thirteenth,nineteen-forty-two and operated through nineteen-forty-five.
At one time, it employed thirteen-thousand people. More thanfour-thousand of them were women. The women worked as spies andguerrilla fighters. They served as communications and propagandaexperts. They studied enemy codes – secret forms of communication.
The current United States Central Intelligence Agency developedfrom the Office of Strategic Services. The C-I-A began operations inNineteen-Forty-Seven.
VOICE ONE:
Linda McCarthy organizes exhibits for the C-I-A. She alsoorganized the exhibit about women spies. A visit there helps peopleunderstand the secret world of these intelligence agents.Information in glass cases describes the women and their service.The cases also contain some of the devices they used at work.
Visitors stand a long time in front of the cases. They read thehistories and talk about the weapons and spy tools. For example,there is a Sauer handgun. It was used during World War One, fromnineteen-fourteen to nineteen-eighteen. The gun could easily behidden under women’s clothing. One visitor commented that it lookedsmall, but very deadly.
The exhibit also shows listening devices and a small spyglasscalled a monocular used during the same period. Secret agentswatched enemy troops and equipment with this monocular. There iseven a piece of brown metal that looks like dog waste. It was reallya radio-transmitter.
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VOICE TWO:
Virginia Hall was one of the bravest and most successful spiesfor the Allies during World War Two. She was born in nineteen-oh-sixto a rich family in Baltimore, Maryland. She studied foreignlanguages while attending Radcliffe College in Cambridge,Massachusetts and Barnard College in New York City.
In nineteen-thirty-one, VirginiaHall took a job at the American Embassy in Warsaw, Poland. Then sheserved in embassies in Estonia, Austria and Turkey. In Turkey,Virginia Hall suffered a tragic accident. Her gun accidentally firedwhile she was hunting. The bullet severely wounded her leg. Doctorsremoved the leg to save her life. After that, she wore a wooden leg.Her injury forced her to resign from the State Department. But shedid not let it stop her from serving the Allies.
VOICE ONE:
Virginia Hall was in Paris, France when World War Two began. Shejoined the French Army and drove a medical vehicle. Before long,however, she had to leave to escape the invading German soldiers.Later, in England, she was invited to join a secret Britishorganization. The job of this agency was to organize resistance. Ithelped form military teams in parts of Europe occupied by Germany.
Miss Hall learned weaponry, communications and security. Then shewas sent to occupied France. She established communications with theFrench Resistance movement in Lyon. From there, she successfullyplotted the escape of many allied airplane crews and prisoners ofthe Germans. She saved many lives.
Later she escaped from France over the Pyrenees Mountains duringwinter. After a time in Spain, however, Miss Hall again spied inFrance. This time she was working for the United States Office ofStrategic Services.
VOICE TWO:
Virginia Hall dressed as a farm worker. She reported German troopmovements and organized Resistance groups while caring for goats.She tried to hide her wooden leg under heavy clothing. By now, theGermans knew who she was. Some called her the most dangerous enemyagent in occupied Europe.
The Resistance fighters she organized gained great success. Asthe Germans withdrew from France, the fighters killed many enemysoldiers. They took hundreds of prisoners. They exploded fourbridges. They destroyed communication lines.
The United States honored Virginia Hall with a DistinguishedService Cross medal when the war ended. She was the only femalecivilian in the war to receive this medal.
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VOICE ONE:
Women also served as spies much earlier in American history,during the Revolutionary War against Britain. For example, GeneralGeorge Washington used information from a woman known only as”three-hundred-fifty-five.” That number meant “woman” in the secretlanguage of American Revolutionary War spies.
Historians believe she was the daughter of a family loyal toBritain. She probably gathered intelligence at social events andcommunicated it to General Washington. Sadly, the British seized herin seventeen-eighty. She died as a British prisoner, shortly aftergiving birth to a son.
VOICE TWO:
During the next century, former slave Harriet Tubman demonstratedall the requirements needed for a Civil War spy. This brave AfricanAmerican woman had escaped from her owners in Maryland ineighteen-forty-nine.
Later she led hundreds of otherescaping slaves to freedom. They fled to states that did not permitslavery. Miss Tubman led almost twenty of these trips. At one time,anyone finding her was promised forty-thousand dollars for catchingher dead or alive.
The Civil War between the northern and southern states began ineighteen-sixty-one. After fighting began, Harriet Tubman went intoenemy territory to spy for the North. She provided the Union armieswith information about southern troop movements. People sometimescalled her “General Tubman.”
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VOICE ONE:
Josephine Baker was an African American dancer and singer. Shewas born in nineteen-oh-six in Saint Louis, Missouri. She waspraised for her beauty and artistry. But she believed that racialprejudice would always limit her work in the United States. So shemoved to Paris in nineteen-twenty-five. There she gainedinternational fame as a performer.
Miss Baker started working for theFrench Resistance movement when World War Two began. She carriedorders and maps from the Resistance into countries occupied byGermany. The orders were written in disappearing ink on pages of hermusic.
She probably did not need to hide secrets in disappearing ink,however. Foreign officials were so pleased to meet a famousperformer that they often failed to examine what she carried.
VOICE TWO:
Julia Child is one ofAmerica’s most famous cooking experts. She joined the Office ofStrategic Services during World War Two. Missus Child helped solve aproblem for the United States Navy while working for this agency.
Sharks had been swimming into American bombs placed under water.The bombs exploded before they could sink their targets — GermanU-boats. Julia Child created a substance that frightened sharks awayfrom explosives.
VOICE ONE:
Sheila Martin serves as a guide at the Women in Military Servicefor America Memorial. Missus Martin joined a Navy women’sorganization during World War Two. She was twenty years old at thetime. She helped try to change coded Japanese weather informationinto English.
A visitor asked Missus Martin why she thought women would work asintelligence agents. She said, “We women just wanted to help.”
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VOICE TWO:
This program was written by Jerilyn Watson. It was produced byCaty Weaver. I’m Shirley Griffith.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Sarah Long. Join us again next week for another reportabout life in the United States on the VOA Special English program,THIS IS AMERICA.