Books > Biography > Historical, political & military
|
Buy Now
Lost in the Cold War - The Story of Jack Downey, America's Longest-Held POW (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R585
Discovery Miles 5 850
|
|
Lost in the Cold War - The Story of Jack Downey, America's Longest-Held POW (Hardcover)
Series: A Nancy Bernkopf Tucker and Warren I. Cohen Book on American-East Asian Relations
(sign in to rate)
Loot Price R585
Discovery Miles 5 850
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
|
In 1952, John T. "Jack" Downey, a twenty-three-year-old CIA officer
from Connecticut, was shot down over Manchuria during the Korean
War. The pilots died in the crash, but Downey and his partner
Richard "Dick" Fecteau were captured by the Chinese. For the next
twenty years, they were harshly interrogated, put through show
trials, held in solitary confinement, placed in reeducation camps,
and toured around China as political pawns. Other prisoners of war
came and went, but Downey and Fecteau's release hinged on the
United States acknowledging their status as CIA assets. Not until
Nixon's visit to China did Sino-American relations thaw enough to
secure Fecteau's release in 1971 and Downey's in 1973. Lost in the
Cold War is the never-before-told story of Downey's decades as a
prisoner of war and the efforts to bring him home. Downey's lively
and gripping memoir-written in secret late in life-interweaves
horrors and deprivation with humor and the absurdities of
captivity. He recounts his prison experiences: fearful
interrogations, pantomime communications with his guards, a
3,000-page overstuffed confession designed to confuse his captors,
and posing for "show" photographs for propaganda purposes. Through
the eyes of his captors and during his tours around China, Downey
watched the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the
drastic transformations of the Mao era. In interspersed chapters,
Thomas J. Christensen, an expert on Sino-American relations,
explores the international politics of the Cold War and tells the
story of how Downey and Fecteau's families, the CIA, the U.S. State
Department, and successive presidential administrations worked to
secure their release.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
|
|
Email address subscribed successfully.
A activation email has been sent to you.
Please click the link in that email to activate your subscription.