By Daria Sommers
Lisa Rogak’s new book Propaganda Girls: the Secret War of the Women in the OSS brings to light the clandestine roles played by a select group of American women who served in the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Their job was to psych out the enemy through information deception. Operating in secrecy in the European and Pacific theaters as well as in Washington, D.C., they forged documents, created newspapers, wrote songs, spread rumors and more. Their undercover work for the OSS, the precursor to the CIA, was crucial to winning the war, a point Rogak establishes in the opening pages:
“During the last brutal eighteen months of World War II, American troops in the European and Far East theaters began to notice a significant uptick in the number of Axis soldiers and collaborators who were surrendering—peacefully and willingly—to the Allies…Many of the war-weary soldiers brandished leaflets, newspaper and letters that served as their personal breaking points.”
The materials those soldiers waved in surrender were created by the OSS’s ‘propaganda girls.’ While the bravery and accomplishments of these women transcend gender, given the prejudices of the time, it should come as no surprise that they were underpaid and often belittled. By profiling four of these women, Propaganda Girls goes a long way towards mainstreaming their hidden history and ensuring their contributions are not forgotten.
Below, Lisa Rogak shares how she came upon this story, the rationale behind the OSS’s calculated decision to hire women instead of men for these secret roles, and why their story still matters.
How did you come to write this story?
While researching one of my books about military working dogs, I was reading lots of books about war and came across information on the OSS’s Morale Operations — a branch of the OSS in WWII that created black propaganda to manipulate the enemy – and learned that there were women working in it. And then I discovered Betty MacDonald. In 1947 she wrote a book called Undercover Girl (now out of print) about her experiences in WWII. She also wrote about other women working in Morale Operations, including the three who, along with Betty, I profiled in Propaganda Girls: Marlene Dietrich, Jane Smith-Hutton and Zuzka Lauwers. So Betty MacDonald was really my entry into the story.
Editor’s note: Betty MacDonald was, in later life, also known as Betty McIntosh.
What is black propaganda?
What most people don’t understand about Morale Operations and black propaganda is that it is usually introduced into a war when one side is clearly losing. It is used to get the losing side to either surrender earlier as in the case of the military, or to get starving, tired civilians to totally give up. So black propaganda was used to get the war to end faster.
How did you choose which women to include in your book?
Of the many women who did this work, I chose to write about four individuals for which there was a tangible mass of information. Betty MacDonald was pivotal because, after the war, she wrote about a number of these women. One of them, Jane Smith-Hutton, was fascinating because she and her husband were living in Tokyo when Pearl Harbor happened and Betty was working as a reporter in Pearl Harbor when it was attacked.
In an operation run by men, why did the OSS’s Morale Operations decide to recruit women to run black propaganda?
‘Wild Bill’ Donovan, the head of the OSS, recruited women because he believed they were better at making up stories. He thought they could come up with gossipy things in ways men couldn’t and that they had a better feel for how to fool people. And that is what the Morale Operations was essentially doing. Fooling people. All of these women had to be fluent in at least one foreign language. (Zuzka Lauwers was fluent in five.) What was remarkable was how they were left on their own and made decisions on their own which was rare back then. That’s because Donovan was a master delegator.
Betty MacDonald with two colleagues at the Morale Operations office in Kunming, China, 1945. (OSS Society)
Did these women get the recognition they deserved during their lives?
No, not really. After the war, Betty married Colonel Heppner who died 1958. She became depressed, went to work for the CIA and wrote some children’s books. Years later, she started to get some attention thanks to her writing about her experiences and the experiences of other women in the OSS. The Washington Post did an interview with her and the OSS Society had her give some talks. That was more or less it. Jane Smith-Hutton went on to live a pretty quiet life and Zuzka Lauwers worked for the Voice of America then floundered. After the war was over, the women, including Marlene Dietrich, felt like they’d lost their purpose in life. One of them said, “I felt most alive when we were at war.”
Reading about these four women together in a book is the first time many people will learn that they existed. Remember, during the war what these women did, along with others like them, was a totally secretive operation. Even other divisions within OSS didn’t know they existed. On the one hand, this gave them a lot of freedom. They only had to answer to people within their division and Donovan. People working in other OSS departments thought they were spies for other countries.
How important is it to tell stories like Propaganda Girls?
In today’s environment, stories about the struggles of women from 80 plus years ago and the impossible obstacles they faced are inspirational. Look at what they were able to do. They were scared every minute that they were working, no matter where they were, because no one knew which direction the war would go in. Yet they were able to succeed against unimaginable odds. That is why books about women from the WWII period will always have appeal.
Propaganda Girls by Lisa Rogak is published by St. Martin’s Press and available online at major bookstores. To find out more about the author and her work, go to lisarogak.com
SAVE THE DATE
A VBC Evening with Propaganda Girls’ Lisa Rogak
Thursday, October 2nd at 7 p.m.
Join us for an in-depth discussion of Propaganda Girls with author Lisa Rogak and learn more about the daring exploits undertaken by these women in both the European and Pacific theaters of WW II as well as back home. Zoom link available via the online events tab at veteransbreakfastclub.org.
How Propaganda Girl Betty MacDonald Predicted the Bomb
An Excerpt from Propaganda Girls by Lisa Rogak
Since she’d started writing for black radio in China, Betty discovered she had a real knack for it. She particularly liked working with “the Seer,” a Chinese announcer working for the OSS who provided astrological predictions during his nightly show. One night in late July 1945, Betty was hashing out ideas for future shows with one of her coworkers, who asked her to come up with something that would prove highly distressing to both the Chinese and Japanese.
What about an earthquake? Her team nixed it since earthquakes were pretty common in both countries.
A tidal wave? Again, thumbs-down. No problem, she’d come up with something.
She headed for her desk and thought back to Jane’s rumor and how effective the mere threat of an attack had been against the Japanese. She figured that she didn’t have to get any more specific; just suggesting the possibility of total destruction would be enough. Betty typed out a news report and handed it to the translator, who then forwarded it to the Seer.
On the evening of August 5, 1945, the Seer opened his show in a somber tone. “Something terrible is going to happen to Japan,” he intoned. “We have checked the stars and there is something we can’t even mention because it is so dreadful, and it is going to eradicate one whole area of Japan.
The next morning, the Allies dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima.
Three days later, when the Japanese surrender was not forthcoming, the Allies dropped a second atomic bomb on Nagasaki. This time the Japanese surrendered. The war was finally over.
When the OSS later heard about the Seer’s broadcast the night before Hiroshima, they feared a leak from within, although by this time, of course, it was of little consequence. But the next time Colonel Heppner saw Betty, he pulled her aside and asked, “How in the world did you find out about this?”
“We just made it up,” she replied. “The weird truth about Morale Operations is that if you make up incredible stories, sometimes they’ll turn out to be true.”
Editor’s note: Betty MacDonald was, in later life, also known as Betty McIntosh.
