Historic Shanghai presents a sneak preview of
Honorable Survivor, the gripping story of John Service's
extraordinary life in China -- and persecution
in McCarthy's America.
Nearly 30 years before President Nixon shook Mao's hand,
U.S. Foreign Service Officer John S. Service
arrived in Yan'an, the Chinese Communist stronghold,
where he got to know Mao and other top guerrilla leaders.
Their meetings would begin a complicated
and often difficult relationship between
the U.S. and Communist China.
Born and raised in China by YMCA missionaries,
Service was the first to predict that
Mao's revolutionaries would win if China's civil war
erupted again -- before anyone else even knew
the Chinese Communists were a potent force.
But his intrepid activities would cost him his career.
He became the first diplomat ever arrested on espionage charges,
and fired for "reasonable doubt" of his loyalty.
Even after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated him,
Service's fight to restore his reputation lasted decades longer --
until the Nixon-Mao handshake.
Author Lynne Joiner draws
on Service's private papers, as well as recently released
secret government documents,
chronicling his incredible life and what befell him
after General Joseph Stilwell assigned him
as America's chief contact with the Communist guerrillas.
As a result, Service became a target of revenge
for Nationalist Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek's supporters,
the first victim of Senator Joe McCarthy's
infamous anti-Communist crusade,
and a "person of interest" to J. Edgar Hoover's FBI
for more than a quarter century.
An Historic Shanghai event
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