BOOK REVIEW Lessons learned from a
senior spy China Hands: Nine
Decades of Adventure, Espionage and Diplomacy in
Asia by James Lilley
Review by
James Borton
James Lilley, a former ambassador
to China and agent with the US Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA), was a Cold War soldier. Written with
remarkable clarity and conviction, his memoir, China
Hands, is about the span of his and his family's
life in China. But now, as the United States struggles to
maintain its image amid scandal and lack of support for
its war on terror, Lilley's account also serves as a
reminder of the dedication he and others have devoted to
serving the US.
During a government career
spanning nearly four decades, Lilley served in the CIA,
the White House, the State Department and the Defense
Department. His book is co-authored in a straightforward
manner by his freelance journalist son, Jeffrey Lilley,
and is a compelling read not merely because it is
interwoven with heart and patriotism, but also because
it serves as a moral compass for understanding the
former diplomat's faithfulness to idealism and
unswerving principles.
At a time when the CIA is
desperately attempting to restore its credibility and
rediscover its mandate in an age ridden with angst by
al-Qaeda and events such as the Abu Ghraib prison
scandal, the merit of Lilley's personal chronicle is
that it reflects not only his extraordinary life, but
also his career, which was centered on a deepening
knowledge of his Asian experience and the lessons
learned there.
It is ironic that the present CIA
headquarters in Langley, Virginia, appears at first
glance awash with ample resources to combat terrorism in
a critical post-September 11 environment, but falls
dramatically short on lessons learned, and specifically,
on the brand of leadership revealed and skillfully
practiced by one of its more dedicated agents, Jim
Lilley.
The CIA now appears to be bracing itself
for another major media typhoon, as the Senate
Intelligence Committee finally releases its 400-page
indictment of the agency's bungling on Iraq and the
level of misinformation on weapons of mass destruction
that supported the administration's decision to go to
war.
Lilley's book also chronicles America's
clandestine operations in Indochina. As a consummate
spy, Lilley examines both the failures and successes of
the agency: attempts to drop agents into mainland China
to work with the demoralized Nationalist government to
train guerrillas; the efficacy of technical intelligence
over personal reconnaissance; the value of overseas
Chinese and refugees as assets; the regular debriefings
of ordinary travelers returning from China; and the
recruitment of Lao agents during the Vietnam buildup to
thwart North Vietnamese from infiltrating into the
South.
The early days of
spycraft Lilley is recruited by the intelligence
agency shortly after graduating from Yale in the summer
of 1951. The ivy league university had assumed a
prominent role in the spy business commencing with the
formation in 1942 of the Office of Strategic Services
(OSS), created to carry out intelligence gathering and
paramilitary operations against Germany and Japan.
Subsequently post war, there were plenty of young,
idealistic Americans, some former military personnel,
others professors and even doctors, who arrived in
Washington to serve quietly and secretly on the front
lines of new Cold War.
The world that Lilley
entered beginning that summer is defined early on in his
unvarnished memoir: "When I arrived in Hong Kong, the
'red' menace seemed to be spreading all around. Eastern
Europe had been forcibly absorbed into the communist
sphere, and in Asia, it seemed that Marxism-Leninism was
expanding from a base in China," writes Lilley.
Lilley, now 76, reveals how his appointment as
ambassador to China coincided with the Tiananmen
massacre in 1989. Of course, the author is successful in
presenting titillating details, which range from
information gained from ABC television's internal radio
communications about the on-the-ground observations as
the troops commenced firing on the students, to the
anonymous telephone call received minutes before the
People's Liberation Army (PLA) strafed the unfortified
diplomatic building occupied by the author and other
embassy staffers, to the protected inferences of
"contacts", suggesting that serious debates took place
among the Chinese leadership - even an informant in Hong
Kong warns the CIA of a possible Chinese attempt to
seize pro-democracy activist Fang Lishi from his
sanctuary in the US Embassy.
Yet, through it
all, Lilley maintains a cultivated detachment as a
seasoned spook. He nonchalantly documents the basics of
a crash spycraft course - casing subjects, dropboxes,
safe houses - and informs readers of his role as a
novice spy at the age of 23 in Tokyo, where he "was a
foot soldier in America's covert efforts to keep Asia
from being dominated by communist China". His
self-effacing style also includes a revelation about his
effective Chinese-language training at the Institute of
Far Eastern Languages in the Chinese language school at
Yale.
As a young college graduate recruited from
Yale, this coming-of-age spy passage revolved around a
period when the agency was newly formed and in its
halcyon era. In those pioneering intelligence years, the
CIA had no problem recruiting its rank and leadership
from America's ivy-league schools: Yale, Princeton and
Dartmouth, to name a few.
Now, in sharp contrast
to the CIA's top-drawer recruitment during the 1950s, a
few senior CIA staffers have already publicly expressed
concern that the recent resignation of CIA director
George Tenet will impede the agency's efforts to recruit
qualified intelligence agents fluent in critical
languages and comfortable in foreign cultures.
Anecdotal evidence China Hands
is laden with rich and colorful anecdotes. For
example, Lilley provides details about the friendship
and trust he shared with former president George H W
Bush, who served as director of the CIA from 1976-77, as
well as their many varied agendas in China. This
relationship began in 1976 when, like now, the CIA found
itself sunk in an agency morale abyss and Bush was
summoned to take over the intelligence service. Lilley
writes: "George Bush's professional leadership restored
integrity to the CIA while balancing the necessity for
secrecy in intelligence operations with Congress and the
public's right to know."
This respect was not
diminished even when Bush visited China as private
citizen in 1977. The invitation was artfully arranged
through a luncheon, where Bush was in attendance, held
in Lilley's home in Maryland with ambassador Huang Zhen,
head of China's Liaison Office in Washington. During
Bush's trip to China with Lilley, Bush had arranged for
the chairman of Pennzoil, Hugh Liedtke, to meet with
China's then-de factor leader Deng Xiaoping, paving the
way for US companies to find oil in the South China Sea.
"In spite of their diminished political statures
in 1977 - Bush being out of power and Deng having just
returned to his government posts from being temporarily
purged - I believe that Bush and Deng sized each other
up as future leaders," writes Lilley.
China's
acceptance of Jim Lilley, a CIA officer, as part of an
official business delegation was a clear signal of
China's early march to modernization and diplomatic
relations. Lilley astutely recognized early on that a
new China would emerge, mixing its brand of raw
capitalism and eroding Leninist politics, as it inched
toward integration with the West.
Lilley's
enthusiastic affirmation of the Middle Kingdom during
this trip is reflected in his recorded observations and
reinforces his anchored position on continued engagement
with China, but never at the expense of abandoning US
relations with Taiwan.
"I found the Chinese to
be peaceful, realistic and reasonable, not a threat,"
wrote the inveterate China watcher. Lilley needed no tea
leaf readings to realize that commercial connections
with China would lead to the development of a more
liberal, middle-class state and the provide potential
for the growth of personal freedoms. Never mind that a
decade later Lilley witnessed up close and personal the
brutality of the People's Party toward the students at
Tiananmen Square.
And despite his profound
respect for and close relationship with George H W Bush,
the author does lament that the president, in May 1989,
never read his cable "characterizing Deng as an Old
Testament man bent on revenge and predicting a violent
crackdown by the Chinese military at the end of May".
Indochina's own Forrest Gump Even
after the tragic suicide of his older brother Frank, Jim
Lilley describes a life of possibility and promise. From
helping Laotian resistance forces assist the US efforts
in Vietnam, to his posting in Beijing during the
Tiananmen Square crackdown, Lilley, somewhat like a
movie version of Forrest Gump, appears in a remarkable
number of crucial places during some of America's most
challenging geopolitical moments.
By 1979, after
serving the CIA for 27 years, Lilley opted to enter a
more lucrative field, serving in a consultant role for
the oil industry, particularly with those US companies
with designs on exploring the South China Sea. Thus,
Lilley quickly transferred his China intelligence
gathering skills from the intelligence agency to
Hunt-Sedeco Oil Co of Dallas. And anymore, the practice
of former CIA operatives entering the consultancy ranks
seems to be a natural career progression as more agents
take leave from Langley to work for private companies in
Iraq and Afghanistan.
In his later role as a
China specialist on the National Security Council, and a
distinguished career as a top-ranking diplomat, Lilley
steered a pragmatic course in addressing the politicized
Taiwan Relations Act and what he refers to as the
"weakness present in the Reagan administration's resolve
to hold the line on arms sales, especially the
controversial FX fighter to Taiwan". Despite the
administration's push for a China-slanted agenda, Lilley
ably contributed to a peaceful navigation of principles
by which the US and China would address arms sales to
Taiwan.
It is interesting that the cast of
characters Lilley interfaced with during this career
junction (the early years of the Ronald Reagan
administration), such as Deputy Secretary of Defense
Paul Wolfowitz and Deputy Secretary of State Richard
Armitage, are now cast in the public eye over the
present US mission in Iraq.
The lens that the
CIA's first station chief in Beijing uses to recapture
his extensive career in this highly readable memoir
seems never clouded by false steps, sentimental views,
judgment or doubt.
James Lilley, the diplomat
and spymaster, readily acknowledges that the world has
changed. And yet his quiet views reinforce the notion
that for all of the mistakes America has made, and there
are plenty, it still remains a vibrant country infused
with freedom and ideals.
James Borton
is a freelance journalist and director of Asia Pacific
Projects for Foreign Affairs. He can be reached at
asiareview@yahoo.com.
China Hands Nine
Decades of Adventure, Espionage and Diplomacy in
Asia by James Lilley with contributions from Jeffrey
Lilley. Public Affairs Books, May 4, 2004. ISBN:
1-58648-136-3; US$30, pages 448.
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Jun 19, 2004
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Central, Hong Kong
United States struggles to
maintain its image amid scandal and lack of support for
its war on terror, Lilley's account also serves as a
reminder of the dedication he and others have devoted to
serving the US. 
