摘要
John Paton Davies＇s story is familiar to students of China-U.S. relations. Born to missionary parents in Sichuan, Davies joined the Foreign Service in 1931 afterhis itinerant undergraduate years. Through language training in Beijing and postings in Kunming, Shenyang, and Hankou, Davies built a reputation as one of the State Department＇s most capable China hands. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, he was working at State＇s Far Eastern Affairs desk. Eager to return to China--or just get out of Washington--Davies urged Major General Joseph Stilwell, who was rumoured to be leading an American military mission to Chongqing, to take him along. Davies got his wish a few months later and spent most of the wartime in China as Stilwell＇s civilian aid. After the war, Davies, who had predicted that Mao Zedong＇s Communists would triumph over Jiang Jieshi＇s Nationalists once the Japanese surrendered, became a -target of Senator Joseph McCarthy＇s anti-Communist accusations. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles fired him in 1954 after his ninth appearance before the State Department＇s Loyalty Security Board. Disgusted with the politics in America, Davies and his family left the country and lived many years in Peru. Though he returned to America in the 1960s and wrote on foreign affairs, Davies never again served in government.
John Paton Davies＇s story is familiar to students of China-U.S. relations. Born to missionary parents in Sichuan, Davies joined the Foreign Service in 1931 afterhis itinerant undergraduate years. Through language training in Beijing and postings in Kunming, Shenyang, and Hankou, Davies built a reputation as one of the State Department＇s most capable China hands. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, he was working at State＇s Far Eastern Affairs desk. Eager to return to China--or just get out of Washington--Davies urged Major General Joseph Stilwell, who was rumoured to be leading an American military mission to Chongqing, to take him along. Davies got his wish a few months later and spent most of the wartime in China as Stilwell＇s civilian aid. After the war, Davies, who had predicted that Mao Zedong＇s Communists would triumph over Jiang Jieshi＇s Nationalists once the Japanese surrendered, became a -target of Senator Joseph McCarthy＇s anti-Communist accusations. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles fired him in 1954 after his ninth appearance before the State Department＇s Loyalty Security Board. Disgusted with the politics in America, Davies and his family left the country and lived many years in Peru. Though he returned to America in the 1960s and wrote on foreign affairs, Davies never again served in government.
