Amy Elizabeth Thorpe
Encyclopedia
Amy Elizabeth "Betty" Thorpe (Minneapolis, Minnesota
, United States
, 22 November 1910 – 1 December 1963, France
) was, according to William Stephenson
of British Security Coordination
, an American spy, codenamed "Cynthia," who worked for his agency during World War II
. British Security Coordination was a cover organization that had been set up in New York City
by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in May 1940.
, United States
. Her father was a U.S. Marine Corps officer. Her mother, Cora Wells, was the daughter of a Minnesota state senator.
Thorpe was introduced at a young age by her parents to the Washington social scene and quickly became immersed in the world of diplomatic intrigue. By the time she was in her late teens, she had been romantically linked to foreign diplomat
s many years her senior. In 1936, Arthur Pack, second secretary at the British embassy in Washington, became Thorpe's choice for a husband; but in the 1930s, in the wake of two quick pregnancies and Pack's work-connected travels, the relationship became distant.
According to William Stevenson
's best-selling A Man Called Intrepid, Thorpe traveled frequently to Europe, nominally to support Pack's work. In reality, according to Stevenson, she had embarked upon secret intrigues, working for both sides in the Spanish Civil War
.
Amy Elizabeth Thorpe came to his attention in winter 1937, after joining her husband on assignment in Warsaw
. William Stephenson
, Churchill's wartime head of British Security Coordination
from May 1940, says that Thorpe was especially useful to Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in 1938 for her work in helping the Allies understand how the Enigma machine
was used and that Polish mathematicians were breaking Enigma ciphers. Enigma machines would be used throughout the coming war by the Axis Powers
, whose enciphered messages would frequently be read at Britain's Bletchley Park
.
Stephenson's story is disputed by historian Richard Woytak
, who describes it as one of several examples of disinformation
, by best-seller authors and others, concerning how the results of Polish cryptologic work on Enigma reached the western Allies. The Polish successes, which began in late 1932, gave inception in July 1939 to the Ultra
operation that would be conducted during World War II
at Bletchley Park
, fifty miles northwest of London
.
Another critic, T.J. Naftali, writes: "The Intrepid myth included the claim that Sir William [Stephenson] had contributed to the actual process of decryption by providing British codebreaker
s with a copy of the German Enigma machine
and by encouraging them to use computer
s to 'unbutton' German signals."
By the time World War II
broke out in Europe in 1939, Thorpe was out of Poland and had returned to Washington, D.C.
, where, according to the late American TV journalist David Brinkley
, she resumed her tour through the American capital's diplomatic social scene, often as mistress to married foreign diplomats. According to Stevenson, Thorpe used the access gained by her romantic relationships to obtain strategic secrets about Germany, Vichy France
and Italy, and to extract practical knowledge needed to place spies in Fortress Europe
. In 1942, according to Stevenson, she obtained codes from the Vichy French embassy in Washington which assisted the Allied invasion of North Africa.
According to Stevenson, a love affair that Thorpe conducted with the Italian naval attaché Admiral Alberto Lais was especially productive and gained western Allied leaders early strategic insight into Axis
war plans in the Mediterranean. In 1967, however, the Admiral's heirs sued a British author in an Italian court for defamation, insisting that Lais (who had died in 1951) had not betrayed military secrets, and won. In 1988, Lais' two sons protested publication of the seduction account in David Brinkley
's best-selling Washington Goes to War and persuaded the Italian defense ministry to publish denial ads in three leading East Coast
newspapers.
After her nearly estranged husband Arthur Pack killed himself in 1945, Thorpe married one of her best informants, Charles Brousse, former press attaché at the Vichy French embassy in Washington. The couple lived together quietly in France until she died of throat cancer on 1 December 1963.
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, 22 November 1910 – 1 December 1963, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) was, according to William Stephenson
William Stephenson
Sir William Samuel Stephenson, CC, MC, DFC was a Canadian soldier, airman, businessman, inventor, spymaster, and the senior representative of British intelligence for the entire western hemisphere during World War II. He is best known by his wartime intelligence codename Intrepid...
of British Security Coordination
British Security Coordination
British Security Coordination was a covert organization set up in New York City by the British Secret Intelligence Service in May 1940 upon the authorization of Winston Churchill.-Operation:...
, an American spy, codenamed "Cynthia," who worked for his agency during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. British Security Coordination was a cover organization that had been set up in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in May 1940.
Early life
Amy Elizabeth Thorpe was born on 22 November 1910 in Minneapolis, MinnesotaMinnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Her father was a U.S. Marine Corps officer. Her mother, Cora Wells, was the daughter of a Minnesota state senator.
Thorpe was introduced at a young age by her parents to the Washington social scene and quickly became immersed in the world of diplomatic intrigue. By the time she was in her late teens, she had been romantically linked to foreign diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...
s many years her senior. In 1936, Arthur Pack, second secretary at the British embassy in Washington, became Thorpe's choice for a husband; but in the 1930s, in the wake of two quick pregnancies and Pack's work-connected travels, the relationship became distant.
According to William Stevenson
William Stevenson (Canadian writer)
William Stevenson is a British-born Canadian author and journalist.His 1976 book A Man Called Intrepid was about William Stephenson and was a best-seller...
's best-selling A Man Called Intrepid, Thorpe traveled frequently to Europe, nominally to support Pack's work. In reality, according to Stevenson, she had embarked upon secret intrigues, working for both sides in the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
.
World War II
According to William StephensonWilliam Stephenson
Sir William Samuel Stephenson, CC, MC, DFC was a Canadian soldier, airman, businessman, inventor, spymaster, and the senior representative of British intelligence for the entire western hemisphere during World War II. He is best known by his wartime intelligence codename Intrepid...
Amy Elizabeth Thorpe came to his attention in winter 1937, after joining her husband on assignment in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
. William Stephenson
William Stephenson
Sir William Samuel Stephenson, CC, MC, DFC was a Canadian soldier, airman, businessman, inventor, spymaster, and the senior representative of British intelligence for the entire western hemisphere during World War II. He is best known by his wartime intelligence codename Intrepid...
, Churchill's wartime head of British Security Coordination
British Security Coordination
British Security Coordination was a covert organization set up in New York City by the British Secret Intelligence Service in May 1940 upon the authorization of Winston Churchill.-Operation:...
from May 1940, says that Thorpe was especially useful to Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in 1938 for her work in helping the Allies understand how the Enigma machine
Enigma machine
An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
was used and that Polish mathematicians were breaking Enigma ciphers. Enigma machines would be used throughout the coming war by the Axis Powers
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
, whose enciphered messages would frequently be read at Britain's Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
.
Stephenson's story is disputed by historian Richard Woytak
Richard Woytak
Richard Andrew Woytak was an American historian who specialized in European history of the Interbellum and World War II...
, who describes it as one of several examples of disinformation
Disinformation
Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. For this reason, it is synonymous with and sometimes called black propaganda. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth...
, by best-seller authors and others, concerning how the results of Polish cryptologic work on Enigma reached the western Allies. The Polish successes, which began in late 1932, gave inception in July 1939 to the Ultra
Ultra
Ultra was the designation adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by "breaking" high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. "Ultra" eventually became the standard...
operation that would be conducted during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
at Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
, fifty miles northwest of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
.
Another critic, T.J. Naftali, writes: "The Intrepid myth included the claim that Sir William [Stephenson] had contributed to the actual process of decryption by providing British codebreaker
Cryptanalysis
Cryptanalysis is the study of methods for obtaining the meaning of encrypted information, without access to the secret information that is normally required to do so. Typically, this involves knowing how the system works and finding a secret key...
s with a copy of the German Enigma machine
Enigma machine
An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
and by encouraging them to use computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
s to 'unbutton' German signals."
By the time World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out in Europe in 1939, Thorpe was out of Poland and had returned to Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, where, according to the late American TV journalist David Brinkley
David Brinkley
David McClure Brinkley was an American newscaster for NBC and ABC in a career lasting from 1943 to 1997....
, she resumed her tour through the American capital's diplomatic social scene, often as mistress to married foreign diplomats. According to Stevenson, Thorpe used the access gained by her romantic relationships to obtain strategic secrets about Germany, Vichy France
Vichy France
Vichy France, Vichy Regime, or Vichy Government, are common terms used to describe the government of France that collaborated with the Axis powers from July 1940 to August 1944. This government succeeded the Third Republic and preceded the Provisional Government of the French Republic...
and Italy, and to extract practical knowledge needed to place spies in Fortress Europe
Fortress Europe
Fortress Europe was a military propaganda term from the Second World War which referred to the areas of Continental Europe occupied by Nazi Germany, as opposed to the free United Kingdom across the Channel...
. In 1942, according to Stevenson, she obtained codes from the Vichy French embassy in Washington which assisted the Allied invasion of North Africa.
According to Stevenson, a love affair that Thorpe conducted with the Italian naval attaché Admiral Alberto Lais was especially productive and gained western Allied leaders early strategic insight into Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
war plans in the Mediterranean. In 1967, however, the Admiral's heirs sued a British author in an Italian court for defamation, insisting that Lais (who had died in 1951) had not betrayed military secrets, and won. In 1988, Lais' two sons protested publication of the seduction account in David Brinkley
David Brinkley
David McClure Brinkley was an American newscaster for NBC and ABC in a career lasting from 1943 to 1997....
's best-selling Washington Goes to War and persuaded the Italian defense ministry to publish denial ads in three leading East Coast
East Coast of the United States
The East Coast of the United States, also known as the Eastern Seaboard, refers to the easternmost coastal states in the United States, which touch the Atlantic Ocean and stretch up to Canada. The term includes the U.S...
newspapers.
Postscript
Thorpe is reported to have later said about her sexually active war years:After her nearly estranged husband Arthur Pack killed himself in 1945, Thorpe married one of her best informants, Charles Brousse, former press attaché at the Vichy French embassy in Washington. The couple lived together quietly in France until she died of throat cancer on 1 December 1963.
External links
- http://www.lovellbiographies.com/castnoshadow/castnoshadow.html
- http://www.historynet.com/amy-elizabeth-thorpe-wwiis-mata-hari.htm
- http://ww2db.com/person_bio.php?person_id=405
- http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/mcintosh-sisterhood.html