The Irish American Spy Ring

Advertise • Help • Contact Us • Permissions

Discussions Groups Events Blogs Photos Premium Irish Circle

Edit Profile Friends Requests Messages Updates

Discussions Groups Events Photos Blogs Irish Pubs Local Networks Expat Info GAA Clubs Rugby Clubs Dating Worldwide

Working in Ireland Working Abroad Currency Converter Jobs Ireland Banking Ireland Irish Sites

Info Ireland Vacation Packages Hotels Car Rental Golf Ferries Hostels Day Tours

Irish Name Register Passenger Lists Screensavers Advice & Resources

Irish News Music & Songs Recipes Proverbs e-Postcards History & Archaeology Heritage & Culture Mythology Irish Studies Literature Gaelic

Gifts & Jewellery Books Music Food Heraldry Clothes Other

Irish Voice

Columnists

WEEKLY NEWSLETTER

Read newsletters

Enter your e-mail address to receive our weekly e-Newsletter:

Sidewalks with Tom Deignan

The Irish American Spy Ring

August 28, 2008

Sidewalks by Tom Deignan

IMAGINE George Clooney parachuting into Tbilisi, Georgia, as hostile Russian tanks invaded the former Soviet republic earlier this month. Or Brad Pitt gathering intelligence in Afghanistan, to insure the resurgent Taliban’s defeat.

Or movie directors Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen sharing their filmmaking expertise with high ranking U.S. government officials, to make sure American soldiers had top notch photographic or video surveillance in Iraq.

Sure, we know today’s celebrities have political opinions. Many of them have gathered in Denver for this week’s Democratic National Convention.

But new files released by the National Archives in Washington reveal battlefield roles of celebrities and other newsmakers -– many of them Irish American -– during World War II.

Perhaps it was TV chef Julia Child who got the most attention when the contents of the files were initially released earlier this month. The future British TV chef (then known as Julia McWilliams) was a research assistant for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the U.S. spy group which was transformed after World War II into the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Actor Sterling Hayden, meanwhile, parachuted into Croatia, then a fascist state, to gather intelligence.

All in all, the National Archives released details on almost 24,000 people who served the OSS in some capacity or other during World War II.

It should be added that the OSS was founded and run by William J. “Wild Bill” Donovan, a World War I hero and son of Irish immigrants born in Buffalo who was the only American awarded the Medal of Honor, the Distinguished Service Cross, the Distinguished Service Medal and the National Security Medal.

Perhaps the most prominent of Donovan’s Irish OSS intelligence workers was the renowned film director John Ford, born Sean Aloysius O’Feeney, and best known for directing some of Hollywood’s greatest films, including the Irish classic The Quiet Man.

By the time World War II broke out, Ford was already one of Hollywood’s great directors, winning numerous Oscars, including for his direction of The Grapes of Wrath. He also is credited with discovering fellow Irish American icon John Wayne –- born Marion Morrison — in the 1939 film Stagecoach, kicking off a collaboration which would last decades and give birth to the American Western film.

But when war broke out in the early 1940s, Ford agreed to become an OSS agent. Ford went on to oversee and coordinate spy photographing efforts and served as chief advisor to “Wild Bill” Donovan.

Ford’s newly released files show that the director was cited by OSS superiors for bravery. According to the files, during one mission Ford was “an obvious and clear target” for the enemy.

Ford survived “continuous attack and was wounded.” Despite the danger, Ford -– ever the man’s man -– continued filming.

Indeed, few people would have enjoyed these tales of dangerous adventure better than Ford himself, who reveled in his own machismo and worked hard to shape his own myth.

Though this is the first time Ford’s and many other OSS files have been made public, biographers such as Joseph McBride have written about Ford’s OSS service in the past.

Ford is not the only OSS spy with Irish ties. Future CIA director (and Queens, New York native) William Casey played cloak and dagger way back in the 1940s.

Two personalities linked to John F. Kennedy also worked for OSS — Arthur Goldberg, who was nominated for the Supreme Court by Kennedy, and Arthur Schlesinger who became a key JFK adviser and biographer.

To some observers these days, the OSS service is not mere adventure seeking, but proof that yesterday’s celebrities are a lot more brave than today’s.

“Sadly, the wartime deeds of our nation’s 1940s elite stands in stark contrast to the behavior of so many of today’s ‘best and brightest,’” Adam Brodsky recently snarled in the New York Post.

“Too many Americans today — at least, among our elites — have scant regard for America’s moral standing or the rights of innocent civilians over those of terrorists. They side with the enemy.”

But let’s not pass judgment just yet. Who knows?

Right now, in Denver, perhaps Clooney and Pitt and Angelina Jolie are plotting a spy mission as we speak.

(Contact Tom at tomdeignan@verizon.net)

Share this story: digg this | Add to del.icio.us

Print Save Discussions

Discuss

Email a friend