Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA’s Covert War in China

National Committee on U.S.-China Relations

Agents of Subversion reconstructs the story of a botched mission into Manchuria, placing it in the context of a wider CIA campaign against China. In the winter of 1952, the CIA flew a covert mission into China to pick up an agent. One of the Americans on the mission, a recent Yale graduate named John T. Downey, ended up a prisoner in China for the next twenty years. The U.S. 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. John Delury sheds new light on Mao’s campaigns to eliminate counterrevolutionaries and on his use of captive spies in diplomacy with the West. In an interview conducted on January 25, 2023, John Delury and Jerome Cohen discuss Downey’s story and its implication for today with Gina Tam. About the speakers: https://www.ncuscr.org/event/agents-of-subversion-john-t-downey/ ___________________________________________________________________________ Subscribe to our channel: https://ncuscr.video/subscribe-youtube Check out the rest of our videos and podcasts here: https://www.ncuscr.org/media Follow @NCUSCR on Twitter: http://twitter.com/ncuscr Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NCUSCR Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ncuscr Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ncuscr Weibo: https://weibo.com/ncuscr Visit our website for the latest information on our upcoming events, programs, digital content, and more: https://www.ncuscr.org/ Support our mission to promote understanding and cooperation between the United States and China: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/ncuscr/promote-engagement