Frederick Cable Oechsner; Former Diplomat, Journalist

Frederick Cable Oechsner, 89, a former diplomat, intelligence officer and journalist who covered the rise of Adolf Hitler. From 1929 to 1942, Oechsner reported from Germany, chronicling the rise of Nazism. For 10 years, he headed the Berlin bureau of United Press. After the United States entered World War II, Oechsner and other journalists were taken captive. They were released as part of a prisoner exchange after being held six months in a hotel. Oechsner and other United Press staffers wrote the bestseller “This Is the Enemy,” a look at the Third Reich. In 1942, he joined the Office of Strategic Services, a precursor to the CIA. He was appointed director of psychological warfare under President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Oechsner later worked at the State Department, at one point serving as deputy chief of mission in Poland. He retired in 1962. In Orlando, Fla., on April 19.