An Ex-CIA Agent Who Was Captured By China
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — John T. Downey, a former CIA agent who survived more than 20 years in Chinese prisons during the Cold War before becoming a Connecticut judge, died Monday. He was 84.Downey was diagnosed with cancer a month ago and died at a hospice facility in Branford, according to his son, Jack Downey, of Philadelphia.
The elder Downey had graduated from Yale University and joined the Central Intelligence Agency a year before his plane was shot down during a botched cloak-and-dagger flight into China in November 1952. He spent the next 20 years, three months and 14 days in Chinese prisons. He was released in March 1973 shortly after President Richard Nixon publicly acknowledged Downey's CIA connection.
After returning to the United States, he graduated from Harvard Law School and was appointed to the Connecticut bench in 1987.
Jack Downey, 34, said his father's years of imprisonment shaped his life in every possible way.
"He could have very justifiably come out of this extremely bitter and cynical about human nature and all things. He miraculously wasn't," said Downey, whose mother was born in China and met his father in Connecticut.
John Downey, of New Britain, and another CIA paramilitary officer, Richard G. Fecteau, of Lynn, Massachusetts, were on their first overseas assignment when their plane was shot from the night sky in a Chinese ambush. Both survived, and Fecteau was kept behind bars for 19 years. Their pilots, 31-year-old Robert C. Snoddy of Roseburg, Oregon, and 29-year-old Norman A. Schwartz of Louisville, Kentucky, were killed in the crash.
The secret mission was smothered in U.S. government denials, but bits and pieces of the story emerged over the years, revealing a tale of personal triumph, tragedy and CIA miscalculations from the early years of the spy agency's existence.
Their mission was to recover a spy working for the CIA in the Manchuria region of northeastern China. Downey and Fecteau had been assigned to a covert program that airdropped noncommunist Chinese exiles into the area to link up with disaffected communist generals, but the agent they were picking up had betrayed the Americans.
Downey was well known to the Chinese operatives because he trained them. When Downey was captured, a Chinese security officer pointed at him and said in English: "You are Jack. Your future is very dark."
Downey and Fecteau were hauled off to prison, interrogated and isolated in separate cells. Each spent long stretches in solitary confinement.
After their release, Fecteau said they would visit occasionally during Downey's time in law school and split a pint of ice cream, because neither of them drank. He said he admired his friend's mental strength during their time in captivity.
"He never weakened. He never felt sorry for himself," Fecteau, 87, said Monday. "What happened happened and he lived with it as best he could, and I liked that."
A nephew of Schwartz, Erik Kirzinger, said he became friends with Downey in the 1990s as the pilot's family worked to have his remains repatriated to the United States.
"I can't exaggerate the high regard I hold him and Mr. Fecteau in for the example that they set for all of us," said Kirzinger, of Madison, North Carolina.
The CIA in 2011 released a film, "Extraordinary Fidelity," which blends documentary footage and re-enactments to tell the officers' story. The film details efforts by CIA officials in Washington, throughout the men's imprisonment, to keep their financial affairs in order and provide assistance to their families, who did not even know the men were alive until a show trial was held in Beijing two years after the crash.
In 2013, Downey and Fecteau received the CIA's Distinguished Intelligence Cross, the agency's highest honor of valor.
Ex-CIA Agent Who Was Captured By China During Cold War And Held Prisoner For 20 Years Dies
据美联社11月17日报道，冷战期间曾在中国监狱服刑20多年的美国中央情报局前特工、后来成为康涅狄格州法官的约翰·唐尼17日去世，终年84岁。
唐尼从耶鲁大学毕业后进入中央情报局工作。一年后，也就是1952年11月，他在乘飞机进入中国从事间谍活动时被击落。此后，他在中国的监狱里度过了超过20年的时间。
在尼克松访华后，约翰·唐尼于1973年3月被释放。回到美国后，他进入哈佛大学法学院学习并从那里毕业。
当时，来自康涅狄格州的约翰·唐尼和中央情报局的另一名特工、来自马萨诸塞州的理查德·G·费克图乘机执行海外任务，结果中了中国的埋伏，被从空中击落。两人都幸存下来，费克图被监禁了19年。
这次秘密行动因美国政府的否认而被尘封，但是随着时间的推移，相关情况被零星披露出来，组成了一个包含个人胜利、悲剧和中情局早年错误决策的故事。
唐尼等人执行的任务是接应一名在中国东北地区为中央情报局工作的间谍。但他们所要接应的这名间谍出卖了美国人。
也算是倒霉，当年外交部张闻天建议放了，周恩来总理批放。结果毛主席否决，理由是放了我们有这几个人，美国人就会怕我们，我们就有筹码了。
1952年2月18日晚，美情报机关让张文荣等5人穿上志愿军军服，携带袖珍收发报机、苏式步枪、美制小型手雷以及地图、指北针等，在一群美军的“护送”下登上了一架美C—46型运输机。机上还有10个美国人，其中大都是平时训练他们的教官。飞机临起飞前，美籍特务教官“王先生”还特地赶来训话，声称只要完成任务，返回后定有重赏。飞机起飞后，张文荣便在昏暗的机舱里悄悄做准备。他的不远处还坐着美特务机关“远东司令部联络队”负责这次行动的哈里森。哈里森奉命将3个特务小组（张文荣为G组）空投到朝鲜北部铁原以西的谷山郡地区。该地区是志愿军部队在第五次战役后奉命休整地。美情报机关给张文荣他们的任务是搜集志愿军在当地的弹药库、粮库等相关情报，为飞机轰炸标定目标。2月19日凌晨2点20分，飞机到达目的地上空，随着机舱里红灯闪烁，哈里森首先大声命令G组做好跳伞准备。张文荣乘机迅速将准备好的手雷装进了棉手套里。紧接着跳伞开始了，哈里森向张文荣连连挥手命令他立即跳伞。于是，张文荣暗地用手指抠住手雷的铁环，在离开舱门前猛地拉环使劲将手雷扔进了机舱深处。张文荣则迅速转身跳离飞机，敌人的间谍破坏计划在爆炸声中化为了泡影。
此时，志愿军地面防空部队也在密切监视着这架敌机。他们惊奇地发现敌机在空中突然爆出一团火焰后，前后两个降落伞也在月光里徐徐降落。原来，哈里森在手雷爆炸前一瞬间，也以特工的敏捷迅速跳伞逃命。哈里森很快被志愿军活捉，而张文荣则落到了另一座大山的树林里。随后，张文荣立即找到搜山的部队，交出了随身武器和特工用品，并向部队领导讲述了整个事情的经过。被俘的哈里森也在供词中证实了张文荣的英雄行为。由于张文荣的身份和英雄壮举过于传奇，负责审查他的部队很快将他送往志愿军总部。张文荣随即又将美军虐待和强行“甄别”战俘、逼迫战俘当特务的罪行，以及中朝战俘英勇斗争事迹逐一向上级首长机关作了报告。
早在1951年12月朝鲜停战谈判进入遣返战俘议程时，美方就公然违背《日内瓦公约》有关“毫不迟延地释放和遣返”战俘的基本原则，以所谓“自愿遣返”、“一对一遣返”（“联合国军”被俘1.15万人）等荒谬方案百般设置障碍，致使战俘遣返谈判毫无结果。然而，数月之后突然发生的张文荣炸机事件，使美方顿时陷入了狼狈不堪的窘境。志愿军谈判代表马上利用这一事件以及张文荣等提供的大量揭露美军迫害我方战俘的事实，让美方的罪恶行径大白于天下，迫使美方不得不在战俘问题上有所收敛。
由于历史的局限性和人们对战俘的偏见，张文荣的英雄壮举并未得到志愿军保卫部门的认可，而是被送回国内接受审查。直到1958年3月才由北京军区政治部了结此案，并出具证明称：“张文荣在朝鲜战场上被美军俘去后，强迫其充当特务，当张乘敌飞机降落前，用身带之手榴弹将敌机炸毁，向我投案自首，有立功表现，为此奖给张文荣人民币800元。”虽然800元在当时是个较大数目，但这种奖励显然与他的英雄壮举有着本质的不同，同时并未恢复其军籍。不久，张文荣被遣送回乡务农，而那封证明信也没有给他摘掉“叛徒”、“特务”的帽子，反而使他在历次政治运动中吃尽了苦头。遗憾的是，张文荣没有等到彻底平反的那一天就于2000年3月去世。同年6月，北京军区政治部派专人前往辽中县，给张文荣的家人送去了关于恢复张文荣军籍的决定，补办（发）了复员军人证明书和复员费。这个迟到40多年的平反决定为这位极具传奇色彩的志愿军老兵的人生画上了圆满的句号。
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