The United States government knew it needed to step up its espionage game during World War II. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—the forerunner of the CIA—was created just six months after the December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor, and it was tasked with putting a creative spin on the art of war.

“It was my policy to consider any method whatever that might aid the war, however unorthodox or untried,” wrote Stanley Lovell, the OSS’s head of Research and Development (think of him like Q from James Bond). This policy led to the testing of some rather unusual ideas, from small time-release bombs glued to bats to developing of a chemical that smelled like feces that would be sprayed on the enemy to embarrass them. Both plans…