Julia Child was a SPY!

Mata Hari was double agent for Germany in France during WWI.

Frankly, I was shocked. While watching the History Channel last night, a program about the Revolutionary War and the Culper Ring (i.e. spy ring) , when a bomb of information was dropped on my unsuspecting head. Julia Child and Mata Hari were given as examples of female civilians that had become spies during wartime. Wait, Julia Child? A spy? What!? I realize I might be coming a little late to this party of knowledge; but, come on History Channel, how can you lump Julia Child and Mata Hari in one illustrative example sentence, like a passing thought? I, of course, had to investigate. As the History Channel spent all of 20 seconds, three sentences and a photo collage on the subject. As it turns out I'm not THAT late to this influx of covert intelligence. 

Julia Child worked for the OSS during WWII.

Julia Child didn't spill the beans of her super secret spy career until 2008, when records on the OSS were made public record. I'm still stunned that before Julia Child was a cooking legend she was in China dishing out secrets (pardon the pun). Though, the stark difference between Mata Hari and Julia Child (beside the fact that Hari was horribly executed)  is that Julia was on the intelligence end of spy intelligence. 

Working in an office filing, typing and cataloging. Not as sexy as the "undercover" cloak and dagger life of Mata Hari, perhaps, but then she didn't get shot by a firing  squad either. I'm with Julia on this one, I'd rather sneak quietly via file cabinets.Though Julia did help develop a shark repellent to put on explosives targeted for German U-boats. That's pretty bad-ass, if you ask me. 

Article on Julia Child and the CIA