WOMEN IN INTELLIGENCE

General

Aline [Griffiths], Countess of Romanones

Aline [Griffiths], Countess of Romanones, has published a series of spy fact/fiction books, perhaps partially and loosely based (particularly for those where the action occurs in the wartime and earlier post-war years) on personal exploits. The author's links with OSS during World War II seem to be widely accepted as fact. These books are not listed elsewhere in this bibliography, because this compiler/editor finds it impossible to place them among the nonfiction works (as bizarre as some of those may be) otherwise presented. The books are listed below in order of publication.

The Spy Wore Red. New York: Random House, 1987. [pb] New York: Jove, 1990.

The Spy Went Dancing: My Further Adventures as an Undercover Agent. New York: Putnam, 1990. [pb] The Spy Went Dancing. New York: Jove, 1991.

The Spy Wore Silk. New York: Jove Books, 1992. [pb]

The Well-Mannered Spy. New York: Jove Books, 1994.

Bender, Margaret. Foreign at Home and Away:  Foreign-Born Wives in the U.S. Foreign Service.  Lincoln, NE:  Writers Club Press, 2002. 

Peake, Studies 47.2 (2003), finds that the author "interviewed 40 women from 28 countries and she tells their stories with eloquence.... In a chapter titled 'CIA Wives:  To Love, Honor, and Take the Polygraph,' Bender tells how many wives react to the revelation that marriage to their fiancé ... requires a background investigation and a session on the box.  The rules for foreign-born CIA wives are special and Bender discusses many of them, some of the foul-ups that occur, and the various support services available."

Bower, Donald E. Sex Espionage. New York: Knightsbridge, 1990. [pb] 1991.

Surveillant 1.1: The author undertakes an "examination of the role of sexual compromise and entrapment to secure important information." He presents "scores of well-known cases where sexual exploitation played a key role."

Breuer, William B. War and American Women: Heroism, Deeds, and Controversy. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997.

The focus of this work is not on women in intelligence, but rather concerns American women in military service. Nevertheless, Smith, WIR 16.1, notes that Breuer's "stories about women in the OSS and their adventures in France and Switzerland prior to D-Day ... are well told and exciting."

Cookridge, E.H. Sisters of Delilah: Stories of Famous Women Spies. London: Oldbourne, 1959.

Wilcox: "From ancient times to present."

De Pauw, Linda Grant. Battle Cries and Lullabies: Women in War from Prehistory to the Present. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1998.

Includes some WWII cases.

Hoehling, Adolph A. Women Who Spied. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1967. Women Who Spied: True Stories of Feminine Espionage. Lanham, MD: Madison via University Press of America, 1992. [pb] 1993.

Table of Contents:

Part 1. Delilah's Disciples

1. Spy for the Continental Army: Lydia Darragh, 1777

2. A Rainy Sunday in Greeneville: Sarah Thompson, 1864

3. The "Alice Service": Louise de Bettignies, 1915

4. The Kaiser's Woman in New York: Maria de Victorica, 1918

Part 2. Women Spies Come of Age

5. Dolls in Mufti: Velvalee Dickinson, 1944

6. Never So Few: Britain's Heroines of World War II

7. Traitors and Crackpots: Britain's Nonheroines of World War II

8. Spy from on High: Barbara Slade, 1943

9. The Woman on Our Conscience: Milada Horakova, 1950.

Hutton, J. Bernard [Pseud., Joseph Heisler]. Women in Espionage. London: W.H. Allen, 1971. New York: Macmillan, 1972.

Constantinides: This book is unreliable. Nevertheless, this is the first treatment of the Rinaldi case, a Soviet espionage operation uncovered in 1967 which spanned several countries.

Laville, Helen. Cold War Women. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2002.

Lewis, Donald. Sexpionage: The Exploitation of Sex by Soviet Intelligence. New York: Harcourt Brace, 1976.

Constantinides: Although the operational use of sex is a legitimate topic for research, this book "can only be described as a potpourri of fact, rumor, and speculation."

McIntosh, Elizabeth P. The Role of Women in Intelligence. McLean, VA: Association of Former Intelligence Officers, 1989.

National Women's History Museum. "Clandestine Women: Spies in American History." At http://www.nmwh.org/spies/1.htm.

"Women have traditionally and in great numbers volunteered to help protect the nation. Besides enlisting in the military, women have effectively served in the shadowy world of espionage as couriers, guides, code breakers, intelligence analysts, even as covert agents -- spies."

Topics covered are: Introduction, American Revolution, Civil War, World War I, World War II, Cold War, and Post Script.

Van Seters, Deborah. "'Hardly Hollywood's Ideal': Female Autobiographies of Secret Service Work, 1914-1945." Intelligence and National Security 7, no. 4 (Oct. 1992): 403-424.

The author argues that "a distinct and important 'female voice'" exists in the personal recollections of the secret service women being surveyed.

Van Seters, Deborah. "The Munsinger Affair: Images of Espionage and Security in 1960s Canada." Intelligence and National Security 13, no. 2 (Summer 1998): 71-84.

The so-called "Munsinger Affair" of 1966 was not really a spy case; but, as the author points out, it was treated at the time by some, specifically the RCMP, as a potential sex-spy matter -- that is, a sex-spy-scandal waiting to happen or a might-have-been event. The author uses the Munsinger affair "as a means for exploring the range of contemporary [i.e., contemporaneous] Canadian attitudes concerning the nature of security threats to Canada and the proper role of government in protecting Canadian security."

Wheelwright, Julie. The Fatal Lover: Mata Hari and the Myth of Women in Espionage. West Sussex, UK: Juliet Gardner Books, 1992. [pb] West Sussex, UK: Collins & Brown, 1993.

Despite the specific mention of Mata Hari in the title, this book ranges broadly around the world in its survey of the ways (most unjustified, according to the author) the idea of the seductive and dangerous temptress has been promoted.

Wheelwright, Julie. "Poisoned Honey: The Myth of Women in Espionage." Queen's Quarterly 100, no. 2 (Summer 1993): 291-309.

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