Lisa Rogak’s nonfiction book, Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS, isn’t my usual reading. I usually read for character development, even in nonfiction. But, this book is fascinating as it tells the story of four women who worked for the OSS (the predecessor of the CIA) in the last eighteen months of World War II.

Betty MacDonald was a twenty-eight-year-old reporter in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, living there with her husband, also a reporter. Zuzka Lauwers was a native of Czechoslovakia who spoke five languages before she was twenty-one. Jane Smtih-Hutton was the wife of a naval attache in Tokyo. And, Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress. All these women worked for General “Wild Bill” Donovan as part of his MO Branch, Morale Operations, where they assisted with black propaganda. They were part of “Donovan’s Dreamers”, highly intelligent and creative women who were fluent in at least one foreign language.

After her husband enlisted, Betty ended up in India and worked behind enemy lines in China. Zuzka married in March 1939, and, when her husband enlisted, she headed to Washington, D.C., and then enlisted in the Women’s Army Corps. Jane Smith-Hutton was married to her second husband in 1939, and she and her family were captive in the American embassy in Japan for six and a half months before all the captives were exchanged. She vowed revenge on the Japanese, and used her knowledge and language skills in the new position. Marlene Dietrich, beloved in Germany before she left for the U.S., set up a relief organization in 1937 to help Jews and others escape from Germany. In 1939, she renounced her German citizenship, became a U.S. citizen, and spent the war years entertaining “her boys”, the troops.

Rogak tells the story of each of these women, and follows through with their lives until their deaths. Her format of covering each of the women in turn works well for nonfiction. It’s an intriguing, little-known story, with an excellent bibliography for those who want to read more.

Lisa Rogak’s website is https://www.lisarogak.com/

Propaganda Girls: The Secret War of the Women in the OSS by Lisa Rogak. St. Martin’s Press, 2025. ISBN 9781250275592 (hardcover), 240p.

FTC Fulll Disclosure – I read a galley from the publisher, through NetGalley, with no promise of a positive review.