Summary

This chapter begins with a description of how Virginia returned to the United States in September 1945 as a stranger in her own country” (287). She found her country as changed as family and friends found her, her mother continuing to disapprove of her daughter’s choices and, particularly, her choice of partner; Virginia and Paul continued their relationship, but secretly. Barbara did accompany her daughter to the official, ceremonial presentation of her DSC; Paul did not.

Virginia struggled to find work. President Harry S. Truman had dismantled the OSS shortly after the war ended. He soon learned, however, that there remained a need for covert operations and so-called “spy work”; the Soviet Union and the advancement of Communism was a concern to all the Allies in the aftermath of the war, and there needed to be consistent, ongoing investigation of the...