Editing E. Howard Hunt (section)

==World War II and Early Career==
After graduating, Hunt joined the U.S. Navy in 1941, serving as a destroyer gunnery officer in the North Atlantic until he was medically discharged in 1942 after a fall. He then worked briefly as a war correspondent for Life magazine (known for its association with the CIA as part of Operation Mockingbird) in the Pacific and as an editor at Doubleday, refining his writing skills. In 1943, Hunt joined the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA, training in sabotage and espionage. Stationed in Kunming, China, he coordinated guerrilla operations against Japanese forces, an experience that shaped his covert operations expertise. This is the area where Chinese General [[Chiang Kai Shek]] operated and his military attache, Colonel [[Paul Helliwell]] was assigned. The OSS and later the CIA would use the drug trafficking of heroin to pay for covert operations modeled by Chiang to create Operation Gladio.

Post-war, he worked for the Economic Cooperation Administration in Paris, administering Marshall Plan aid which was used to fund Operation Gladio being set up in Europe at the time, and briefly as a screenwriter in Hollywood, penning scripts for RKO and advising on films like Bungalow 13. He, along with many other CIA agents, worked in Hollywood for the CIA.