Agents of subversion : the fate of John T. Downey and the CIA's covert war in China

In the winter of 1952, at the height of the Korean War, the CIA flew a covert mission into China to pick up an agent. Trained on a remote Pacific island, he belonged to an obscure anti-communist group known as the Third Force based out of Hong Kong. The exfiltration would fail, disastrously, and one of the Americans on the mission, a recent Yale graduate named John T. Downey, ended up a prisoner of Mao Zedong's government for the next twenty years. Unraveling the truth behind decades of Cold War intrigue, historian John Delury documents the damage that this hidden foreign policy did to American political life. The US government kept the public in the dark about decades of covert activity directed against China, while Downey languished in a Beijing prison and his mother lobbied desperately for his release. Mining little-known Chinese sources, Delury sheds new light on Mao's campaigns to eliminate counter-revolutionaries and his use of captive spies in diplomacy with the West. Agents of Subversion is an innovative work of transnational history, and it demonstrates both how the Chinese Communist regime used the fear of special agents to tighten its grip on society and why intellectuals in Cold War America presciently worried that subversion abroad could lead to repression at home.

Agents of Subversionreconstructs the remarkable story of a botched mission intoManchuria, showing how it fit into a wider CIA campaign againstCommunist China and highlighting the intensity-and futility-ofclandestine operations to overthrow Mao.

In the winter of 1952, at the height of the Korean War, the CIAflew a covert mission into China to pick up an agent. Trained on aremote Pacific island, the agent belonged to an obscureanti-communist group known as the Third Force based out of HongKong. The exfiltration would fail disastrously, and one of theAmericans on the mission, a recent Yale graduate named John T.Downey, ended up a prisoner of Mao Zedong's government for the nexttwenty years. Unraveling the truth behind decades of Cold Warintrigue, John Delury documents the damage that this hidden foreignpolicy did to American political life. The US government kept thepublic in the dark about decades of covert activity directedagainst China, while Downey languished in a Beijing prison and hismother lobbied desperately for his release. Mining little-knownChinese sources, Delury sheds new light on Mao's campaigns toeliminate counterrevolutionaries and how the chairman of theChinese Communist Party used captive spies in diplomacy with theWest. Agents of Subversion is an innovative work oftransnational history, and it demonstrates both how the ChineseCommunist regime used the fear of special agents to tighten itsgrip on society and why intellectuals in Cold War Americapresciently worried that subversion abroad could lead to repressionat home.

Agents of Subversion reconstructs the remarkable story of a botched mission into Manchuria, showing how it fit into a wider CIA campaign against Communist China and highlighting the intensity-and futility-of clandestine operations to overthrow Mao. In the winter of 1952, at the height of the Korean War, the CIA flew a covert mission into China to pick up an agent. Trained on a remote Pacific island, the agent belonged to an obscure anti-communist group known as the Third Force based out of Hong Kong. The exfiltration would fail disastrously, and one of the Americans on the mission, a recent Yale graduate named John T. Downey, ended up a prisoner of Mao Zedong's government for the next twenty years. Unraveling the truth behind decades of Cold War intrigue, John Delury documents the damage that this hidden foreign policy did to American political life. The US government kept the public in the dark about decades of covert activity directed against China, while Downey languished in a Beijing prison and his mother lobbied desperately for his release. Mining little-known Chinese sources, Delury sheds new light on Mao's campaigns to eliminate counterrevolutionaries and how the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party used captive spies in diplomacy with the West. Agents of Subversion is an innovative work of transnational history, and it demonstrates both how the Chinese Communist regime used the fear of special agents to tighten its grip on society and why intellectuals in Cold War America presciently worried that subversion abroad could lead to repression at home. "This book explores the covert side of US-China relations during the Cold War and subversion-repression dynamics in both countries. It documents CIA efforts to subvert Mao Zedong's Communist Party rule by recruiting a Third Force during the Korean War, and examines the subsequent two decades of diplomatic standoff, especially over the case of captured secret agent Jack Downey" -- Provided by publisher