From: "Andrew Higgins" Newsgroups: sci.space.history
Subject: Re: Titan Missile -- 1955 Status?
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 02:35:16 GMT
In article <374C98D3.8DC60022@pacbell.net> , "Michael P. Walsh" wrote: >
George Herbert wrote:
As I recall, he was hounded out of the country in the McCarthy era for what appear now to have been completely trumped-up charges rather than real espionage activities, and he was forced to return against his will to mainland China, who promptly put him to use on their missiles program (for the obvious reasons).
> -george william herbert >
> gherbert@crl.com >
I believe some people have been rewriting history again. >
Rather than being hounded out of the U.S. he was prevented from leaving the U.S. to return to Communist China and my understanding he was leaving with a large amount of technical information (this was unclassified, but still important).
Since we never reached the totalitarian depths of our antagonists he was eventually allowed to return to China where he basically jump-started their missile program.
The story is much more complex than either of those accounts.
There were various factions within the U.S. (Depts. of Defense, State, etc.) in the early 1950's. Some wanted Tsien out: he had loose Communist Party affiliations in California from the 1930's, his homeland had just become a Communist state, and he was working on highly classified defense projects. Some wanted to keep him in: he already knew too much.
Tsien's stated desire was to return to China for a short visit, but he also gave indications of wanting to return for good. His true intentions were unclear. For 5 years, he was in limbo: security clearance revoked, under constant investigation, unable to work on defense contracts, but not free to return to China.
The deciding factor was the 1955 U.S.-P.R.C. talks on the return of U.S. service men being held by the Chinese since the Korean War. The Chinese negotiated the return of the U.S. service men, with the main condition being that the U.S. must give Tsien back to China. He went back to China shortly thereafter.
See "Thread of the Silkworm" by Iris Chang for details. --
Andrew J. Higgins Department of Mechanical Eng. Shock Wave Physics Group McGill University higgins@mecheng.mcgill.ca Montreal, Quebec