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As CIA Turns 70 and OSS 75, New Book Reveals

World War II Female Spy Who Practiced Psych-Ops

Her Craft Was Black Propaganda and Her Mission Was to Demoralize the Enemy
through Psychological Warfare

A fascinating account of a remarkable woman in extraordinary circumstances. War and spycraft as they have
seldom been portrayed. And a wonderful match between author and subject.
H. W. Brands, New York Times bestselling author of The First American and Traitor to His Class

Ann Todd has made an invaluable contribution to the intelligence literature.

Her portrait of OSS officer Betty McIntosh, a personal hero and role model
for many of us in the intelligence profession, brings Bettys amazing story to
life. This is a beautifully researched and written book. It is a wonderfully
fitting tribute to a legendary American spy.
James M. Olson, senior lecturer, George Bush School of Government
and Public Service, and former Chief of CIA Counterintelligence

OSS Operation Black Mail is the fascinating story of Betty McIntosh, whose
real-life World War II exploits with the OSS sound like the product of a
Hollywood screenwriter's imagination. Betty was a trailblazer in American
intelligence, both in the OSS and later the CIA. Her story is not to be
missed. Bill Harlow, former Chief Spokesman, Central Intelligence
Agency

Today as fake news and disinformation muddy our news media and roil
our political discourse, this colorful account of an adventurous and deeply
patriotic young woman shows what powerful weapons these can be against a
wartime adversary. Former reporter Betty McIntosh emerges from these pages as one of OSS General Wild
Bill Donovans most creative shadow warriors. Peter Earnest, Executive Director of the International
Spy Museum

Todd has created a book that should be required reading for anyone interested in the Allied war against Japan,
U.S. intelligence operations in the 1940s, and the critical role of women in the OSS and the U.S. intelligence
community . . . . There are few books that cover the same ground in Asia, and very few that offer the insight
Todd provides on how it feels to work to erode enemy morale as part of a larger war zone effort . . . . Every
page is filled with information that practitioners of the espionage trade, historians of World War II, and the
common reader will want to read and re-read.Studies in Intelligence
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 (CBI), a place at the time often
referred to as Confused beyond imagination. There 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 she 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.

OSS OPERATION BLACK MAIL

One Womans Covert War Against the Imperial Japanese Army
By Ann Todd
Publication date: 15 September 2017
ISBN: 978-1-68247150-0 | Hardcover eBook | list price: $27.95
6 1/8 x 9 1/4 | 280 pages | 14 b/w photos and 1 b/w map
Naval Institute Press

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