achievement was the effect they had on a war weary nation, hungry for good news, the black sheep provided a steady stream of it. theirs is a war story that deserves to be told. i'm oliver north. good night. . tonight on "war stories" the infiltrated hitler's third life. >> we forward them on one idea. >> in the cold war penetrating. >> it's an act of war. >> american spies, the oss, the cia from world war ii to the world on terrorists. >> the united states is a nation being attacked on international terrorist. >> had to go on. >> next on "war stories." ♪ ♪

good evening. i'm oliver north and welcome to "war stories." if these walls could only talk. wild bill donovan, the predecessor sot intelligence and this building was used by the cia to coordinate operations until 1994. thousands of nameless and faceless men and women who dedicated their lives to serving our country's service. they don't come home to march in a parade. they go unknown even to their own family. tonight, we bring you courageous stories from some of these unsung heroes who worked undercover to protect america's freedom and make the world a safer place. wars are not only fought on the battle fed but espionage always played an important role in

deceiving the enemy. the revolution in 1776 a 21-year-old patriot was hanged by the british for being a spy. >> i only regret i have but one life to lose for my country. >> during world war i, he played double agent for the french and germans. in the 1920s and '30s americans like marine lieutenant colonial earl ellis spied on ja man and it's rumors amelia earhardtest final flight was in fact a colvert mission and on december 7th, 1941 the world changed. america was attacked at home when the japanese bombed pearl harbor. two days later germany declared war on the united states and a global conflict that became

imperative for the u.s. to have a unified central intelligence operation on june 19th, 1942 president roosevelt signed an order to establish the oss, the office of strategic services and they were authorized to an liz intelligence and plan and conduct covert operations using unorthodox psychological warfare. under the direction of the joint chiefs of staff, the officers by the highly decorated william j. donovan or as his colleagues called him, wild bill. the oss was comprised from people of all branchs of the armed forces and civilians. some were women. >> i've been studying japanese for several years and my one ambition was to go overseas and he said well, would you think about joining the government? and i said well, what would i do? he says i can't tell you.

and i said well, could you promise that i wouldn't be sent overseas? he said i can promise you that. >> at 23 elizabeth was one of the first women recruited by the oss. >> unlike every other component of the american military and american intel jens, the oss welcomed women. >> spies, the secret agents that changed the course of history. >> donovan discovered there was this test pool, these beautiful young women there in hawaii recruited by the oss, when was the next step in preparation for becoming the spy? >> well, they sent me to training school. >> war service provide as greater scope for individual initiative and imagination in

this job for which you volunteered. >> to protect themselves, the recruits were well trained in tricks of the trade like spotting counter fit money, dressing like the enemy and following other agents. >> we were at the congressional club and beautiful greens and things throwing hand grenades and we learned hmore. >> the first assignment overseas was in india and she worked in mo specializing in propaganda against the japanese fiercely fighting. [ gunshots ]. >> a whole new intelligence art was built up called psychological operations. the idea was go to work on the enemy's head trying to shoot toward if you could device some kind of campaign that would force the enemy to lose space and surrenderer, it would be as effective as bombing and killing

him. >> one of the things that i think was quite important, the fact that the japanese would never surrender because they thought they would lose their code or rights and never go back to the shine where everybody else was. >> elizabeth wanted to take charge of the government in japan in jaul uly of '44. >> i thought with the new government maybe they just might change the idea. >> together with the japanese prisoner captured, elizabeth designed a leaflet that looked like it came from the japanese military, said it was all right for japanese soldier to surrend surrenderer, that they were wounded, out of food, ammunition and surrounded. >> you print up the leaf lets that appear to be orders in

burma. >> yes. >> but how to distribute the leaf lets? fighting japanese in the homes in the dense jungles of burma. >> a japanese currier on his way to another out post killed him and planted this order in his pouch and they ran onto the next japanese detachment and told him that someone had killed their man and they better go back and get him and after that all over burma dropped them by air. >> as a result, thousands of japanese soldiers surrendered. >> that's correct, yeah. >> elizabeth stayed with the oss until the war ended but in 1959 she returned to the service and joined the cia. for the next 14 years, she conducting operations in washington and the far east, even the sister hood of spies, the women of oss.

july 20th, 1944, hitler narrowly escaped being assassinated after a bomb exploded in a briefcase in his headquarters. the bomb was planted by part of a conspiracy against hitler. he was arrested and executed the next day but the oss knew there was a golden opportunity, and they turned to 20-year-old barbara. >> we had discussed how to take advantage of this piece of news really fast and very effectively. >> barbara came to the yoits from czechoslovakia. she became a u.s. citizen and a private in the army war with a degree and fspeaking six languages, she was stationed in rome.

>> we sat truth the evening in an apartment in the room contributing ideas and it was decided that the best way to get to the land with this piece of news would be to use war. >> what was the name of this operation? we picked the name for the operation, operation sauerkraut. >> barbara drive to a prisoner of war camp to search for german prisoners that could link the operation. she interrogated numerous captains before choosing 16 men. >> you have 16 german soldiers who are prisoners of war turned back into basically double agents. >> we sold them on one idea,

shorten the duration of this misery. the war is over. that there is no need to lose a limb or life. back in germany, there is a group that have tried to kill the fear. you can do really humanitarian piece of work by bringing this news as fast as possible to your people across the lands and they bought it. >> the pows mission was to reinfiltrate back across the german lines and redistribute rumors, leaflets and fake orders. >> where did you get the uniforms? >> the casualties, sort of stripped the uniforms and put these guys into the uniforms that we found on the beaches. >> the pows in operation

sauerkraut would serve leaf lets, plant a few rumors almost like planting viruses, and it proved very effective because eventually, the moral of the german forces began to seriously erode. they eventually worked on a separate surrenderer deal and surrendered totally. >> barbara, as a result of your work with the oss, you were very highly decorated. >> i was recommended and received a bronze star. i had glory in my life. the soviets shootdown american spy planes during the cold war. francis gary powerer's son speaks how it jackie: as an 18 year old, i let my mistakes kind of take over my life. i was point-five credits away from completing high school

and i didn't do it. angela: i got pregnant and i was the main one working so, i did what i had to do to survive. jocelyn: sentía que la escuela no era para mí. karim: most of my family they never graduated high school or even let alone go to college so i'm trying to break that barrier. jackie: my family never stopped pushing for me to be better because they knew what i could become and who i could become as a person. karim: everyday after work i went straight to school, studied hard, and it paid off. jocelyn: sentía como que si quiero cambiar el mundo tengo que cambiara mi primero. group: surprise! surprise! surprise! angela: i could not have gotten my diploma without my family. jocelyn: mi consejera, ella fue lo máximo para mí porque me ayudó mucho con todo. jackie: i've been given an opportunity

and i'm just thankful for it. angela: yeah it's hard, but keep on going and keep on trying. karim: the high school diploma has just added to the confidence and now i feel unstoppable. narrator: find free adult education classes near you at finishyourdiploma.org

in 1955 the soviet union was accepting a open skies proposal, to make it less restricted and foster trust between the countries. by the late 1950s we were at the height of the cold war, the soviet union worked on a msz sieve program. fidel castro led the group and at home americans were worried about nuclear war. >> as the cold war heated up, we realized something, we were blind. i mean blind. it was a huge country.

we didn't know how many planes they had, bombs they had, tanks they had. we didn't know. >> that's why these children are practicing to duck and cover like you do in your school. we know the atom make bomb is very dangerous. >> it was crucial for the national security of the united states to obtain intelligence about what the soviets had hidden. we relied on recognizance but there were no aircrafts that could fly high enough to be undetected by the soviets. that changed in 1954. kelly johnson top aircraft engineer began building the spy plane that could fly an astonishing 70,000 feet. by 1956 the u 2s were flying regular missions over the soviet union. >> very small but they started

flying and incredible. you could see things with clarity. you could blow these pictures up and count each individual plane, each rocket. the soviet union become an open book. >> the men chosen to fly the ultimate spy plane was francis gary powers. he grew up in virginia and took the trip at a county fair and at 21 entered the force trained as an f- 84 fighter pilot. he was ordered to korea but suffered an appendix attack. >> that mission to korea, his name was given to his commander as one of the outstanding pilots. >> power's son founder and president of the cold war museum. he studied his dad's spy missions extensively. >> the cia was looking for outstanding pilots to fly these

new airplanes. my father jumped at the opportunity as it was explained to him, he would be flying a unique and new aircraft doing something very important for the american government. >> did your dad tell you what it was like to fly in one of these missions? >> he said it was very quiet, very peaceful. he said he was very close to god. >> would francis gary powers every touchdown again or end his life

. ellen then head of the cia requested permission for another flight over the soviet union.

it was rumored they detected the last flight. >> he said look, i'll approve this flight and i'll tell you something, boys, one of these days, one of these planes is going to come down and there is going to be a hell of a mess. >> on may 1st, 1960 he launched his mission from pakistan. >> of course, the mission was to over fly the soviet union and collect intelligence. yeah, he was over flying military bases, military complexes roads, depots, and other targets that were critical to the u.s. government's knowledge of what their strength of technique of war was. his total mission would be about 5,000 miles from pakistan. he flew to norway. >> he was flying when 14 soviet

missiles were fired. he lost control. >> what altitude were you at when the missile strikes? >> the missiles hit the plane. my father fell with the wreckage and inside of the cockpit to 30,000 feet. he had 40,000 feet of free fall inside the cockpit. >> he thinks about using the ejection seat but he can't because it steve -- it would take his legs. he's propelled up tout of the plane. at 15,000 feet it opens. >> he landed on russian farm land. >> the local pfarmers help him with his backpack and parachute and ask him questions in russian. well, my father didn't speak

russian so he could only slug his shoulders. >> he was taken to the police station for questioning. >> he was asked a few questions by someone who speaks english, who are you? who are you doing here? he implies he's lost, got off course trying to get in touch with the u.s. embassy, to which they reply that's not permitted. later that evening about 5:00 p.m. or so, they escort him to moscow. at that time he's taken to prison, which is infamous political prison where spies were captured and interrogated. he's interrogated 12 to 16 hours per day. >> he volunteered for the duty, knew well its the cia, knew well spied could be tortured terribly if caught, was he given any means, a poison pill or anything like that? >> yes, as a way to prevent the

pain and suffering if they were caught, there is a small needle this big and fit inside of a hallowed out silver dollar. he took the pin out and the pin in a side pocket, threw away the silver dollar. when they found the pin, he said hey, be careful with that. it's dangerous. because he didn't want to have a murder conviction on top of espionage. as the soviets tested this pin on a dog, the dog died in 20 seconds of affixation. >> do you suppose, gary, that some of the reason why some don't hold your dad because he didn't kill himself. >> i'm sure there are those who feel that way, especially some that are high ranking officials then who thought it was an unwritten law that spies commit suicide. they did not order the pilots to cop mi commit suicide. it was an option to take the device with them and an option to use it.

>> gary flew on mayday, a sacred holida holiday. >> really got the communist and the equivalent of the russians doing the same thing on july 4th. by 1960 it was still espionage to over fly somebody easter t'sy and it was serious, could be regarded as an act of war. >> some said his father was a traitor. could his name ever be cleared? that's next on "war stories." but i'm not standing still...

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