The Top Secret History and Celebrated Life of Julia Child

By JIM PURCELL

To the world, master French chef Julia Child (1912-2004) was a television personality with an amazing cooking show. In addition, she was an author who penned a slew of best-selling books about cooking. She brought the mysteries of fine cuisine right into the homes and living rooms of millions and millions of people for decades.

   However, before Julia Child was a celebrity chef, before the television shows and the book deals...even before she was Julia Child...she was an intelligence professional with theOffice of Strategic Services (OSS). Indeed, at 28 years old, the single Child was known by her maiden name of Julia McWilliams.

   Julia Child was born in Pasadena, California, the daughter of a land manager and a paper-company heiress. An athletic young woman who measured 6’2” tall, Child played tennis, golf and basketball at Smith College, Massachusetts. She graduated with a history degree from the prestigious university in 1934.

   Before joining the OSS, where she would later meet her future husband, Paul Cushing Child, Child worked for a New York City advertising company. After she left the advertising job, Child’s big question was what came next for her. Well, she looked into joining the Women’s Army Corps (WACS) and the Navy’s WAVES, only to discover that she was “too tall” to enlist in those services. Still, she wanted to contribute to the coming war effort.

Wartime Service With the OSS

   In 1940, when she signed on with the OSS, many Americans believed looming war clouds in Europe and Asia would grow large enough to involve the United States. By 1945, President Harry S. Truman would disband the OSS in favor of the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency, but it was the OSS that operated throughout World War II.

   The OSS, which was aspy agency, was led by legendary General William “Wild Bill” Donovan. At the OSS, Child began her intelligence career as a research assistant, in Washington DC.

   In recent years, details of the service of Child and 24,000 other OSS employees have been revealed in 750,000 documents released to the public. Through these documents, it is revealed that several celebrities of the day had strong OSS ties during the war, including: actor Sterling Hayden, future Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, Major League Baseball catcher Moe Berg and even historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr.

   For a year, Child worked at the OSS Emergency Rescue Equipment Section (ERES). Child went from being an office assistant to becoming an assistant to developers of a shark repellent used to make sure sharks didn’t explode ordnance that targeted German U-boats.

   As part of her work with shark repellent, Child decided to experiment with cooking ingredients that might be effective against the underwater predators. At this she was successful, as she found a concoction that could be sprinkled atop the water near the ordnance and sharks would, indeed, avert that area. For this, Child received a citation from the OSS noting her contribution in solving this formerly chronic problem. Reportedly, Child’s remedy for shark repellent is still in use today.

Julia Child during her service with the OSS

   During 1944, Child was posted to Kandy, Ceylon, which is now Sri Lanka, an island country in Southern Asia. There, the future celebrity chef’s duties changed. At that time, she was given the task of “registering, cataloging and channeling a great volume of highly classified communications” for the OSS’s clandestine stations in Asia.

   After her assignment in Ceylon, Child was posted to Kunming, China. Her work in China was exemplary and, for her efforts, Child received the “Emblem of Meritorious Civilian Service” award from the OSS. Perhaps more importantly, it was in China that Child met and fell in love with her future husband, Paul Cushing Child, a fellow OSS employee.

   As the war wound down, and the OSS was disbanded, Child and Paul Cushing Child returned to the United States. And, on September 1, 1946, the two former spy agency employees were married in Lumberville, Pennsylvania and began a new life together.

Full-Color OSS Patch

   While the Childs would share a lasting love story for the remainder of their lives, the union would produce no children.

Beyond The OSS

   Initially, Paul Cushing Child worked as an artist and poet in Paris, France with his new wife. In 1948, he joined the U.S. Foreign Service and was assigned to Paris, where the U.S. State Department posted Peter to the United States Information Agency.

   While in Paris, that is when Child attended the celebrated Le Cordon Bleu cooking school, where she began her life as a chef. Following her graduation from Le Cordon Bleu, Child went on to study with famous chef Max Bugnard.

   After Child was finished with her studies in the culinary arts, then came her very first book, which essentially launched her career.

   Child’s first book, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” was co-authored by Child and fellow chefs Simone Beck and Louisette Bertholle in 1961. All three had met in a cooking club that Child had joined called “Le Cercle des Gourmettes,”

Julia Child and her beloved husband, Paul Cushing Child

   For 10 years before their book was published, the three chefs -- Child, Beck and Bertholle -- began teaching American women how to cook French food from Child’s kitchen. The three called their school L’ecole des trois gourmandes (The school of three food lovers).

   After the book was published, it was Child who translated it into English and introduced it into the American literary market. In the United States the three chefs signed a contract with New York book publisher Alfred A. Knopf. Naturally, the book was a great success.

   Based on the success of the book, Child embarked on her well-known and celebrated career in the media and she authored several more books about cooking.

   On television, she began hosting a show on Boston’s WGBH-TV called “The French Chef,” in February 1963. And so, a legend was born.

   Julia Child passed on Aug. 12, 2004, at the age of 91 in Montecito, California. Meanwhile, the love of her life, Paul Cushing Child, had passed on 10 years earlier, on May 12, 1994. At the time of his death, Peter was 92 years old.

   Child lived an extraordinary life that had many wonderful chapter. Her story is one of wartime, clandestine service. Yet, it is also a love story and a tale about a woman creating her own career in print and on television at a time when this was the exception to the rule. In all, Child left this world far better than she found it thanks to her many lasting contributions.

(Jim Purcell is a retired print journalist, editor and publisher. He resides in Western North Carolina with his wife, Lita.)

Is Duterte ready to hand over the Philippines to China?

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has made his break with the U.S.

SPECIAL EDITORIAL

By JIM PURCELL

The Philippine Islands is one of the most tactical locations in the Pacific Ocean. During World War II, it was a strategic linchpin to recapturing the Pacific from the Japanese Navy. Whomever has control of the Philippines has a lot to say about what happens throughout the entire theater. Now to the point: Is Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte planning to allow the occupation of the Philippines by the Chinese military?

It's a good question, and here are some of the reasons to consider it: 1. Duterte rejected new grants from the European Union to protest its alleged interference with Philippine affairs, after he received more than $1 billion in pledges for development from China; 2. Inclusive of his newly minted deal with Beijing is the establishment of significant Chinese contruction and hydro companies throughout the Philippines; 3. While Duterte has scaled back U.S. military involvement in the Philippines, he has welcomed joint naval expercises between China and the Philippines, even personally welcoming a Chinese flotilla of warships to Davao, in May; 4. After saying "goodbye" to U.S. involvement in the Philippines post his landmark trade deal with China, the Philippine president welcomed both U.S. and Chinese military assistance in defeating Abu Sayef (the Chinese now being a player in the Philippines); and 5. Duterte stated decisively that it is "time to say goodbye" to the US during an October, 2016 visit to China.

Duterte has created a new era of cooperation with Beijing.

Duterte characterized the U.S. relationship with the Philippines as for the benefit of the U.S. entirely and derided former U.S. President Barack Obama as the "son of a whore." It is Duterte's position that, for too long, Philippine political decisions have been made in the West. He added, "What kept us from China was not our own making. I will charter a new course." Duterte, who is himself of Chinese extraction, also recently ceded ownership of the South China Sea to China, even after an international tribuneral found for retention of the seaway. However, Duterte stated the international tribuneral was a Western puppet of the United States. He then went on to say that the Chinese are the most powerful military and economic force in the theater.

With more than $1 billion in Chinese investment, besides from the establishment of many Chinese companies in the Philippines now, can it be believed that China would not secure its investments with military power?

Duterte has made it his practice to have long, extended periods of martial law to combat the uprising in the country's Mindinao Province. Yes, this is understandable, to an extent, because of the uprising. Yet, Duterte has, truly, chartered a new course; a course that could easily be undone by a successor in five years, though. In truth, most Filipinos would rather do business with Americans rather than the Chinese. So, the way to guard China's investment into the Philippines, and for Duterte to protect his legacy, is for him to simply not give up power at the time of the next election....maybe because of Abu Sayef...or some other group that may or may not exist.

Can the United States afford to have a Chinese-controlled Philippines?

Bear in mind, with what has already been signed between China and the Philippines, it would be perfectly legal for the Chinese military to show up to 'protect the freedoms' of the Filipinos. They could protect the investment of China and Chinese companies...and the Filipino president who opened the door for China.

Yes, the Filipino people are well known for their love of freedom and willingness to fight oppression. However, against the weight of the Chinese and Filipino military, a Filipino resistance would fail. And, let us face the fact that, unable to either pacify or extract itself from wars in Southwest Asia after more than 12 years, the U.S. military is far from the defense heavyweight it once was. No amount of wishful thinking -- or maybe even throwing money at it -- will recreate an American military that was prepared to fight and win wars. Today, the American military offers excuses about why it has not won and optimism about the future of failed campaigns -- not results. In light of that, the chances of an American military unilaterally displacing the invited Chinese military in the Philippines is small.

Perhaps the United States would have the 'legal' right to wage war should the Chinese military occupy the Philippines or become a satellite of Beijing's -- but lawyers never took an inch of ground.
Perhaps only the United States, with Russia by its side, could actually perform the miracle of beating the Chinese back from the Philippines -- except for the fact that Duterte has already made a peace treaty with Vladimir Putin and the Russian Federation, which is a telling move.
I think Americans and Filipinos need to wake up and smell the coffee.

Jim Purcell is an award-winning journalist who has been recognized by, among other groups, the United States Congress and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He is a graduate of the New York Theological Seminary and is a former U.S. Army Intelligence Analyst at the XVIII Airborne Corps.

It's Time to Take Duterte Seriously

Is Philippine Prez a New U.S. Threat?
Does Duterte Serve the Bests Interests of the Philippines?

Rodrigo Duterte

Feature Commentary

By JIM PURCELL

In recent weeks, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has changed or threatened to change longtime understandings about geopolitics and Asia alliances insofar as the U.S. and the Philippines are concerned.

President Duterte has made it plain that he, as a leader of the Philippines, no longer regards Asia -- or the world for that matter -- through the lens of any Philippines-U.S. alliance. Further, the Philippine president has made very public statements that, at least ideologically, he and his nation are now more aligned with Red China and the Russian Federation than with the West.

In his Beijing press conference earlier this week, Duterte pressed the point that his government is seriously considering canceling all military cooperation between the U.S. and the Philippines, including the abandonment of long-standing Philippine defense pacts with the U.S.

President Duterte has made this much clear: It is time for the U.S. Government, as a whole, to responsibly re-evaluate vulnerabilities that currently exist between the U.S. and Duterte's regime. The U.S. cannot count on an ally that is not an ally. In a post-9/11 world, can Americans afford to not take seriously the clear, loud anti-American statements and actions of a  supposed ally? I think not.

The relationship between the American people and the people of the Philippines is not at issue, in my opinion. Americans and Filipinos have been peoples with the same destiny for many decades now. The friendship of these two great peoples is written clearly in the pages of history, and often in American and Filipino blood. The U.S. does not, I believe, need to defend itself against the Filipino people. However, this nation does need to assess the clear danger that President Duterte presents to the American people at home and abroad, its trade agreements in Asia and the Pacific Rim, as well as its potential for military harm against the United States, its allies, or interests in the Pacific or around the world.

It was Duterte, in China, who issued the call that it would be "China, the Philippines and Russia against the world." I believe that clearly requires some consideration by the U.S. Government, its leaders, diplomats and military, to sharply weigh this nation's posture with regards to the Duterte regime. While all of this is going on, American diplomats have said a grand total of nothing of substance. And, can the U.S. afford uncomfortable silences where this danger may or may not exist because it is inconvenient to begin assessing the harm this regime poses or could pose against the United States.

The U.S. Government should not cut off its ties in empathy to the Filipino people, though it must begin to take seriously the rantings of an anti-American leader who is fast making a mark as much more than an American critic. He has crossed that meridian, in my opinion, and is en route to becoming an enemy of this nation.

What is at stake?

The U.S.-Philippine relationship is not just one of state dinners and pomp and circumstance. At issue is Duterte's willingness to potentially harbor terrorism, or to sponsor worldwide terrorism against the United States, and how that relates to the U.S. policies of immigration, trade and military support. This must be examined before there is something to regret; not afterward. Duterte has painted himself as an enemy of the U.S., its people and interests worldwide. He cannot be trusted, nor should his regime.

Perhaps the most unfortunate aspect of this global dilemma is not the ongoing drama between the U.S. and China over the South China Sea. Instead, this madman is leading his nation and its people down a road to become a satellite of China, Russia or both. And, it is only his people who will suffer in the end, long after he has left his post and stepped away from the bright lights of public office.

Duterte signals possible end to defense pact with U.S.

By JIM PURCELL

 Rodrigo Duterte

According to a Reuters report filed by Kiyoshi Takenaka and Linda Sieg published in the Huffington Post, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte reportedly assured Japanese Government officials that he will remain on Tokyo's side relative to the ongoing South China Sea controversy with China.

This is despite the fact that, last week, he signaled a new ideological re-alignment between Manila and Beijing that was announced from the Great Hall, in Beijing. During the announcement, he stated that he is not allied with the interests of Washington anymore, especially militarily and diplomatically. However, he later qualified that, while he will not be antagonizing the U.S. on either front, he has removed Philippine and American interests from being the same internationally.

Shinzo Abe

Duterte went on to say that he might very well enter into an agreement with Russia, which would put "Russia, the Philippines and China against the world."

U.S. diplomats have remain quiet about Duterte's recent proclamations, despite the fact that, during his Japanese visit, he added that he might end defense treaties between the U.S. and the Philippines.

According to the reportShinzo Abe, who has tightened his ties with the U.S. recently, is left at a loss, as he is also attempting to build bridges with the Philippines.In characterizing Japan as a "special friend who is closer than a brother," Duterte said he would work side-by-side with Tokyo on regional issues, including the South China Sea controversy.

Philippine Prez Breaks Off Alliance with the U.S.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte reviews the troops in China.

Feature Story

By JIM PURCELL

On Oct. 20, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte made it clear during a Beijing press conference that he is aligning his country with China. In a published CNN report by staffers Katie Hunt, Matt Rivers and Catherine E. Shoichet, it is reported that Duterte announced Philippine economic and military separation from the United States.

He is reported to have said, "America has lost now. I've realigned myself in your ideological flow," referring to Red China's world view. 

The Philippine president added that "maybe I will also go to Russia to talk to Putin and tell him there are three of us against the world: China, Philippines and Russia."

Of Duterte's latest announcement, Deputy White House Press Secretary Eric Shultz said there has been no request made by the Phillippines to change existing alliances. 

Meanwhile, Chinese diplomats have reportedly said they are ready to start a "new chapter" with the Philippines. 

Recently, relations between the Philippines and China had been troubled with an ongoing territorial dispute and rights of navigation issue in the South China Sea. Duterte seems to have pushed that to the background in his new initiative with China.

Of U.S. President Obama, Duterte, 71, said, "I am no American puppet. I am the president of a soverign country. I am not answerable to anyone except the Filipino people ... [Expletive Deleted], I will swear at you."

President Duterte has harsh words of criticism for the U.S. 

In a report written by Wall Street Journal staffer Trefor Moss, it was reported that Duterte felt he was offended by President Obama over a perceived slight. This occurred last month during a regional summit in Laos. 

Duterte's sister, Jocellyn Duterte is quoted as saying the Philippine president "expected more respect from Obama." 

During Duterte's press conference two days ago, which took place in Beijing's Great Hall, Duterte explained his understanding of  "separation" as not breaking off ties with the United States altogether, but certainly he plans on charting a foreign policy that may or may not align with that of the United States.

Duterte's regime has been in power in the Philippines for only a few months. However, according to a Washington Post report by Ishaan Tharoor, he has repeatedly made vulgar comments about America's president and envoy in Manila. He has regularly threatened to force U.S. Speacial Forces out of his country, where that unit has a long history of operating. 

As Duterte goes about breaking off some ties with the United States, he still remains very popular in the Philippines, according to published reports. Still, in 2015, 92 percent of Filipinos responded they had a favorable view of the United States, while only 54 percent held a favorable view of China. 

Just how Duterte's actions will influence U.S.-Philippine relations in the long run is unclear, and U.S. State Department officials have remained surprisingly quiet thus far during the ongoing global drama surrounding Duterte.