Customer Reviews

Honorable Survivor: Mao's China, McCarthy's America and the Persecution of John S. Service

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I greatly enjoyed and highly recommend Honorable Survivor. The last time I lost this much sleep over a book it was Red October. Lynne Joiner wrote a great novel. Except it's history. When I took history in high school it was boredom incarnate. I guess Lynne didn't take that class. I have spent time in China and was immediately able to connect with the story she tells. I knew pieces of it but have never had the opportunity to see it all come together - and she does a great job of bringing all the pieces together. The only problem with making a movie out of John Service's life would be trying to fit this story into so short a time. Last thought: there are few novelists who could create so complex a plot. This book should solve about a third of your Christmas gift list.
Disclosure: I met Lynne Joiner in Shanghai when I was running a business there in the 90's. I think I am on her friends list. I know she spent much of the past decade on this book. It was worth the wait.

Seldom does the reader have an opportunity to enjoy a rousing good spy caper, a haunting story of forbidden love and learn important lessons in modern history under the same book cover. HONORABLE SURVIVOR: MAO'S CHINA, McCARTHY'S AMERICA AND THE PERSECUTION OF JOHN S. SERVICE delivers on all three counts and then some, as author Lynne Joiner takes us down the road of intrigue, betrayal and abused political power. It's an informative journey for anyone the least bit concerned about U.S. forign policy as it exists today and great reading entertainment for everyone else. Which only raises the question of who they're going to get to play the title role in the movie. Hank Schoepp, Las Vegas, NV.

Lynne Joiner has put her heart and soul and considerable intelligence into this book. She has written a book that delivers a story that is timely and timeless. It's an important book on an important topic. And, not to be overlooked, it is highly reaadable.

There is much to praise about Honorable Survivor. Ultimately what makes the book so satisfying is that it combines multiple elements. It is obviously the story of man. But it is also the story of a time. And the conflict of people, ideas, ideologies and countries.

History is full of drama, but too often history books are dry. Honorable Survivor is full of drama and nuance.

Highest recommendation.

If Tuchman's =Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45= (published in 1978) drew obvious parallels between America's misadventures in China and Vietnam, this one seems to posit similarities to our more recent involvement in the Middle East. In =Honorable Survivor=, Joiner has retold the story of how the West "lost China" in a considerably greater - and more useful - detail than Tuchman's version, in no small part because Joiner was able to tap many formerly classified documents... as well as get the story straight from the horse's mouth.

Using the same dramatic device employed by Tuchman, Joiner tells us the long, sordid tale of a man's attempts to simply report the truth as he saw it to his superiors. As in =Stilwell=, the author personalizes the story adequately to help the reader sense the central character's considerable dismay and frustration, something to which anyone who's worked in the "political mystery" can relate.

Had Stilwell lived into the late `40s and early `50s, he might have himself been the principal "whipping boy" for those seeking to gain greater control over American society in the name of "national security." Stilwell passed on, however, and State Department veterans Jack Service, John Davies and John Vincent became convenient targets for narcissistic and unscrupulous power-seekers like Patrick Hurley, Edgar Hoover and "Tailgunner Joe" McCarthy.

Service was vastly more castigated and pilloried for his truth-telling than Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson. His "crucifixion" lasted over a decade (from 1945 to 1957). FBI documents, finally declassified under the Freedom of Information Act, spotlight a virtual obsession with the State Department in general, and Service in particular, on the part of a director of a truly "secret police" who'd been at his post since 1924 (the same year Joseph Stalin became the most powerful man in Russia).

Knowing his nephews, I was honored to speak with "Uncle Jack" in 1998. At 89, his memories were crystal clear. Equally clear was the fact that he had worked through and made sense of the entire matter and bore no lingering grudges. Service understood the anti-communist paranoia of the Cold War, as well as how it was used by some to advance their personal and political imperatives.

Few people in the West have ever known or understood the Chinese people and their Communist masters as well as Jack Service. Those who seek to gain at least a bit of his (and the author's) remarkable grasp of China in the 20th Century will find =Honorable Survivor= to be =the= book on America and China of this era, as well as another look into the manipulation of truth with fear.

This book is both masterfully written and immaculately researched. Easy to read, it is nonetheless a compelling biography and work of geopolitical history. Anyone with an interest in China, its relationship with the United States, the Second World War, the Cold War or history generally will find this book both fascinating and enjoyable. I came away with a much deeper insight into America's involvement in China during World War II, its dealings with Mao and the opportunities lost when the US myopically wed itself to Chiang Kai-shek's regime. Lynne Joiner's sympathetic, but by no means uncritical, narrative of John Service's life, career, tribulations and character is a major work of non-fiction.
Dr. Paul Vout, former Chief Representative in China of Blake Dawson International Lawyers

I enjoyed Honorable Survivor tremendously. The story of Jack Service touches on some of the most significant historical themes of the last 60 years--World War II, the roots of the Cold War, McCarthyism, the roots of modern China--and this book provides a personal and novel angle on the events, focusing on a protagonist who repeatedly crossed paths with the bold-letter names of history (from Mao and Madame Chiang to Hoover and Truman). Lynne Joiner does the compelling material justice, telling the story in a style that is thorough yet concise, nuanced yet clear, and sympathetic to its protagonist without being blind to his flaws.

This book has been outstandingly researched and reads like a novel. It is more than a biography of John S. Service, it also a story of China during World War II, of the United States after the war, of the first person to be the victim of the cold war and McCarthyism, of his personal life and loves. It reminds us of the choices made by American administrations after WWII which led to our fighting two wars on the continent of Asia which might well have been unnecessary had we shown less panic and more wisdom in the period 1945-1954. It is good to be reminded of these times, as we may well be entering a time where many of the mistakes of that period are may be repeated with equally dire consequences. John S. Service was accused of having 'lost' China: who will bE equally foolishly accused of having 'lost' Afghanistan or Pakistan or Iraq in the months and years to come. Robert E. Gomperts, Glen Allen, Virginia

After more than 60 years the recent administration still playing the "Two China's Game". The history already proven they were wrong but they just as blind as many previous administration. They seems never learn...

Honorable Survivor is one of the best books I have ever read. In following the dramatic story of Jack Service, indeed one of the most honorable and insightful diplomats of his time, one learns much about the sweep of tremendous change in China during the 20th century and how myopic concern with anti-communism kept American leaders from acting in the best interests of the U.S., both in China and at home. Packed with fascinating details and people, the book reads like the best of historical novels. I found it hard to put down.

In short, late in life Mr. Service admitted that: he had committed espionage on behalf of Mao and lied about it under oath. He made available to Mao Top-Secret documents revealing the locations and weaknesses in the Nationalist Chinese Army. He actively suppressed recognition within the State Department of the actual murderous totalitarian nature of Mao's movement. He had actively "helped" the Red Army because "I wanted them to win"

Late in life he was remorseful and sought to bring this fact to the public. His friends and associates discouraged the effort. Unfortunately, Ms. Joiner seeks to largely perpetrate the effort of his friends to suppress his mea culpa. Fortunately Jonathan Mirsky of the Times Of London, reviewing this book for The Wall Street Journal, broke from the pack. His review, [...], includes the following:

>>But Jack Service was more than that. In two phone interviews with me shortly before he died a decade ago, Service admitted that in the 1940s he had given Jaffe a top-secret document revealing the Nationalist Order of Battle, which showed the exact disposition of the forces facing Mao's troops. When I observed that some might regard this as treason (I made no accusation), Service said he knew it. "I want to get this off my chest," he said, explaining: "I was gullible, and trusting, and foolish." He also told me that he had purposely ignored Mao's persecution, including executions, of his perceived enemies at Yan'an. Why cover for the supposedly moderate Communist leader? "I wanted them to win. I thought they were better than the Nationalists and that if we always opposed them we would have no access to the next Chinese government."

Service pressed me to publish our conversation, but friends of his said that it would be very painful. I agreed and after some time forgot the whole episode, until Ms. Joiner's book came my way. His stunning admission that he did supply classified intelligence to Jaffe, whom he must have assumed would pass it on, puts his later career--and Ms. Joiner's book--in a different light. If what Service told me near the end of his life is true, he can no longer be viewed as an innocent victim.<<