hankyoreh

In the middle of the Korean War, a plane carrying two agents from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) - John Downey and Richard Fecteau - crashed in the Chinese province of Jilin on November 29, 1952. The two were in the midst of a mission to meet with Chinese anti-government activists. After being caught by Chinese People's Liberation Army, the pair spent 20 years in prison.

A recent CIA report titled "Two CIA Prisoners in China, 1952-73" documents the men's story. The report shows the reality of anti-communist operations of the U.S. intelligence agency. At that time, the U.S. undertook operations to nurture "a third anti-communist force" in China, taking into consideration that the Kuomintang had been discredited by the Chinese people. According to the report, Downey and Fecteau were part of a mission whose ultimate goal was to prompt a guerrilla war in northeastern China.

Downey and Fecteau were sentenced to life and 20 years, respectively, in a closed court in 1954, Downey receiving the harsher sentence because the Chinese court found him to be the "leader" of the operation. The court was so closed, in fact, that it was China's Xinhua news agency that broke the information to the outside world that the two were alive. However, the U.S. government would not recognize the two as CIA agents. Downey and Fecteau found themselves falling through the cracks of Cold War secrecy. Fecteau was released in 1971 after "ping-pong" diplomacy between the two countries, and Downey was released 15 months later.

Downey and Fecteau, now aged 76 and 80, respectively, are neither household names, nor even well known within the CIA. The paper's author assessed their case as an example of the brutal reality in the field of intelligence operations.


Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]