Lynne Joiner, author of
Honorable Survivor: Mao's China, McCarthy's America and the Persecution of John S. Service will discuss and read from her new book, available October 7, 2009.
John Stewart Service (3 August 1909 - 3 February 1999) was an American diplomat who served in the Foreign Service in China prior to and during World War II. Considered one of the State Department's "China Hands," he was an important member of the Dixie Mission to Yan'an. Service correctly predicted that the Communists would defeat the Nationalists in a civil war, but he and other diplomats were blamed for the "loss" of China in the domestic political turmoil following the 1949 Communist triumph in China. In the immediate postwar years, Service was indicted in the Amerasia Affair in 1945, of which a Grand Jury cleared him of wrongdoing. In 1950 U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy launched an attack against Service, which led to investigations of the reports Service wrote while stationed in China. Secretary of State Dean Acheson fired Service, but in 1957 the U.S. Supreme Court ordered his reinstatement in a unanimous decision.
Notable reviews:
"Sometimes a writer can use one person's story to illuminate an entire
piece of history, and that is what Lynne Joiner does in her engrossing and
readable book. . . . This is both a solid addition to scholarship of the Cold
War era and the moving, very personal story of the life of one man: brilliant,
flawed, long suffering, and honorable indeed."
-Adam Hochschild, author of
King Leopold's Ghost: A
Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa
"Joiner
ably tells the tragic story of a good American laid low by the basest kind of
character assassination masquerading as anti-Communism. All one can say is:
'Read this book and weep!"
-Orville
Schell, Director of the Center for
US-China Relations, Asia Society.
"Jack Service's experiences in wartime China and
postwar America are an exciting tale with important resonances for current
foreign policy challenges in countries like Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, and
Iran as well as U.S.-China relations. I can't wait to see the movie."
-Susan L. Shirk, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
(1997-2000); currently Director, University of California Institute on Global
Conflict and Cooperation, U.C.-San Diego
‘This maelstrom of political intrigue, with Service
at the center, is presented in well-documented and engaging detail. It is
critical reading for anyone concerned with China policy and an instance of
Congress and the FBI subverting justice."
-Richard H.
Solomon, former Assistant Secretary of
State for East Asian and Pacific Relations; currently President of the U.S.
Institute of Peace
"Honorable Survivor is the gripping tale of one man's extraordinary life in wartime China
and the Kafkaesque era of McCarthyism in America. Lynne Joiner does a
masterful job of using new materials to illuminate how personal decisions,
great historical forces, and the actions of vindictive and overzealous
officials shaped developments in China, the United States, and U.S.-China
relations in ways that have yet to be fully resolved."
-Thomas Fingar, former U.S. Deputy Director of National Intelligence
for Analysis; currently lecturer at Stanford University
"Jack Service did not lose China. On the
contrary, he was a hero of the times. . . . This well-written and thoroughly
researched book . . . helps us understand the machinations and failures of
U.S.-China policy, on both the American and Chinese sides."
-Victor Hao Li, former
President, East-West Center, Honolulu, and former Shelton Professor of
International Law, Stanford Law School
Lynne Joiner is an Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist, news anchor, and documentary filmmaker. Her work has included assignments for CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, NPR, Christian Science Monitor Radio, Newsweek, and Los Angeles Times Magazine. She lives in San Francisco, California.
