Lost in the Cold War : the story of Jack Downey, America's longest-held POW / John T. Downey, Thomas J. Christensen, and Jack Lee Downey
- Author
- Downey, John T., 1930-2014
- Published
- New York : Columbia University Press, [2022]
- Physical Description
- x, 329 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
- Additional Creators
- Christensen, Thomas J., 1962- and Downey, Jack Lee
- Summary
- "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 tortured, 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"--
- Subject(s)
- Downey, John T., 1930-2014
- United States. Central Intelligence Agency—Officials and employees—Biography
- United States. Central Intelligence Agency
- 1950-1953
- Prisoners of war—China—Biography
- Korean War, 1950-1956—Military intelligence—United States
- Cold War
- Prisonniers de guerre—Chine—Biographies
- Guerre froide
- HISTORY / Asia / General
- Employees
- Prisoners of war
- Secret service
- Korean War, 1950-1953—Secret service—United States
- Korean War, 1950-1953—Prisoners and prisons, Chinese
- Prisoners of war—United States—Biography
- United States
- New Haven County (Conn.)—Biography
- China
- Connecticut—New Haven County
- Cold War (1945-1989)
- Korean War (1950-1953)
- Genre(s)
- ISBN
- 9780231199124 hardcover
0231199120 hardcover
9780231552950 electronic book - Bibliography Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
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