A movie provides cover for Harrison’s mission

Soldiers from the 115th Infantry Division. Courtesy of portraitsofwar.com. Marguerite Harrison’s mission for the Military Intelligence Division had the full support of her editors at the Baltimore Sun, who provided cover for her operation. Harrison traveled with newspaper credentials to France under the pretext that she would write feature stories and show a movie the …

Did a love affair spark Harrison’s espionage career?

Albert Ritchie Marguerite Harrison struggled to explain her decision to become a spy. She later recalled she was seized with restlessness and a desire to witness events unfolding in Europe at the end of World War I. Some historians have described her as a distraught widow who joined the intelligence service to forget her grief. …

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Journalist spies lifted veil on Soviet Russia, 1920-21

The uneasy relationship between the American news media and American spy agencies can be traced to the early twentieth century, when the U.S. Army’s Military Intelligence Division dispatched agents posing as journalists to Russia following the Bolshevik Revolution. This article explores three of those cases from 1920-21: Baltimore news reporter Marguerite Harrison, who was America’s …