The Bobbsey Twins, The CIA, and Me

In first and second grade, I was OBSESSED with Bobbsey Twins books. It was not enough to read every book in the series. I wanted to BE a Bobbsey Twin. (It wasn't just the Bobbsey Twins. I did the same with Little House on the Prairie).  Unfortunately for my friends at the time, I was also quite the Bobbsey evangelist, and when not proselytizing, I was recruiting others to roam around our Bethesda, Maryland neighborhood, looking for mysteries to solve.

See that big house on the hill? There are NEVER lights on in that house, but look!  A light is on upstairs!  This is VERY mysterious.

“Oh, come now,” you say, with an indulgent smile.  “How much mystery and intrigue was there in your 1970s suburban Maryland neighborhood?”

Not much.  Unless you count the CIA spying on residents. Yes, you read that right, the CIA – Nixon’s CIA – spied on a family in my neighborhood, which is a thing they are not supposed to do.  All the more interesting, because it was my family.

I’m sad to say, the surveillance was not prompted by a certain seven-year-old on the brink of discovering WHAT, exactly, was going on in that house on the hill.  (Narrator:  There was absolutely nothing going on in that house on the hill). 

Rather, at the time, my father was an investigative reporter for muckraking columnist, Jack Anderson. Anderson had gotten his hands on some sensitive information, and Nixon was honked off. The CIA was determined to figure out his source. (Spoiler alert: they failed). 

“Operation Mudhen,” as it was called, involved as many as twenty CIA agents, armed with binoculars, cameras and other high-tech equipment, staking out Anderson and his reporters.  In the reports, part of the now-famous Family Jewels documents, the reporters were given codenames, all alcoholic beverages.  An odd choice, since Anderson (codename Brandy) was a teetotaler.  My dad was “Eggnog.”

I was completely oblivious, but some kids did get in on the action. When Anderson realized he was being followed, he enlisted the help of his nine children in a counterintelligence operation.  CIA records include a report of an “unidentified woman” entering the lot where agents were hiding. She pulled out her camera and took pictures of the front of their car, then circled around to photograph the rear. That was Anderson's daughter. SO JEALOUS!