Classical Spies

During World War II, the Office of Strategic Services trained academic archaeologists to be boots on the ground spies, drawing on these scholars’ personal contacts and deep knowledge of local languages and terrain. What was the initial inspiration for this scheme, and how did those archaeologists fare? Our guest today is Susan Hueck Allen, a classics professor and author of the book Classical Spies, which documents the operations of academics in the American intelligence service in the Mediterranean World War II.