A01=Ann Todd
Allen Dulles
Author_Ann Todd
Betty McIntosh OSS
black operations WWII
black propaganda
Burma campaign WWII
Category=DNB
CBI theater WWII
China Burma India theater
clandestine warfare methods
covert influence operations
covert operations WWII
covert propaganda units
deception operations WWII
Elizabeth McIntosh
enemy morale operations
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
female intelligence officers
Ho Chi Minh
Ho Chi Minh OSS
information warfare WWII
intelligence deception tactics
intelligence tradecraft WWII
irregular warfare tactics
Japan surrender propaganda
Japanese soldier morale
Julia Child
Julia Child OSS
non kinetic warfare
Office of Strategic Services
OSS Burma operations
OSS China operations
OSS India operations
OSS morale operations
OSS operations
propaganda leaflet operations
propaganda newspaper forgeries
propaganda targeting Japan
psychological operations history
psychological warfare
psychological warfare strategy
radio propaganda broadcasts
rumor warfare tactics
special operations WWII
wartime espionage Asia
wartime intelligence networks
wartime rumor campaigns
women in OSS
WWII intelligence operations
WWII psychological operations
Product details
- ISBN 9781682475409
- Weight: 390g
- Dimensions: 155 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 01 Oct 2020
- Publisher: Naval Institute Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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OSS Operation Black Mail is the story of a remarkable woman who fought World War II on the front lines of psychological warfare. Elizabeth ""Betty"" P. McIntosh spent eighteen months serving in the Office of Strategic Services in what has been called the ""forgotten theater,"" China-Burma-India, where she met and worked with characters as varied as Julia Child and Ho Chi Minh. Her craft was black propaganda, and her mission was to demoralize the enemy through prevarication and deceit, and ultimately, convince him to surrender. Betty and her crew ingeniously obtained and altered personal correspondence between Japanese soldiers and their families on the home islands of Japan. She also ordered the killing of a Japanese courier in the jungles of Burma to plant a false surrender order in his mailbag.
By the time Betty flew the Hump from Calcutta to China, she was acting head of the Morale Operations branch for the entire theater, overseeing the production of thousands of pamphlets and radio scripts, the generation of fiendishly clever rumors, and the printing of a variety of faked Japanese, Burmese, and Chinese newspapers. Her strategy involved targeting not merely the Japanese soldier but the man within: the son, the husband, the father. She knew her work could ultimately save lives, but never lost sight of the fact that her propaganda was a weapon and her intended target the enemy.
This is not a typical war story. The only beaches stormed are the minds of an invisible enemy. Often a great deal of time and effort was expended in conception and production, and rarely was it known if even a shred reached the hands of the intended recipient. The process was opaque on both ends: the origin of a rumor or radio broadcast obscured, the target elusive. For Betty and her friends, time on the ""front lines"" of psychological warfare in China-Burma-India rushed by in a cascade of creativity and innovation, played out on a stage where a colonial world was ending and chaos awaited.
By the time Betty flew the Hump from Calcutta to China, she was acting head of the Morale Operations branch for the entire theater, overseeing the production of thousands of pamphlets and radio scripts, the generation of fiendishly clever rumors, and the printing of a variety of faked Japanese, Burmese, and Chinese newspapers. Her strategy involved targeting not merely the Japanese soldier but the man within: the son, the husband, the father. She knew her work could ultimately save lives, but never lost sight of the fact that her propaganda was a weapon and her intended target the enemy.
This is not a typical war story. The only beaches stormed are the minds of an invisible enemy. Often a great deal of time and effort was expended in conception and production, and rarely was it known if even a shred reached the hands of the intended recipient. The process was opaque on both ends: the origin of a rumor or radio broadcast obscured, the target elusive. For Betty and her friends, time on the ""front lines"" of psychological warfare in China-Burma-India rushed by in a cascade of creativity and innovation, played out on a stage where a colonial world was ending and chaos awaited.
Ann Todd has been a contributing author and consultant for the National Geographic Society, given presentations in national parks about OSS operations, and worked as a historian for the National Museum of the Marine Corps. She served in the U.S. Coast Guard, and now lives in Dripping Springs, Texas.
