Prisoner of Lies

June 1, 2024
In 1952, during the Korean War, Choate class president and Yalie Jack Downey was recruited by the CIA. On an ill-conceived clandestine mission in Manchuria, his plane was shot down and he was taken prisoner and tortured. Eventually moved to a Beijing prison, Downey sustained himself by reading French and Russian classics and maintaining dogged physical discipline. The U.S. refused to acknowledge Downey as a spy, so he was sentenced to life in prison, the CIA concocting all sorts of cover stories. It took until Nixon's historic, 1973 visit to China for relations between the countries to thaw enough for Downey to be released. Werth (The Antidote, 2014) bases this deeply researched biography on Downey's own memoir and sets Downey's story within the context of U.S. intelligence history. Remarkably, after 20-plus years in prison, Downey completed Harvard Law, entered Connecticut politics, and became a judge--only to face public vilification for his handling of an infamous child-custody case. Readers will revel in Werth's raw and unsparing depiction of international power politics and a brave American.

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June 17, 2024
Journalist Werth (The Antidote) offers a riveting account of a “botched and blown” spy mission during the Korean War and the subsequent 21-year imprisonment of CIA agent Jack Downey (1930–2014), “America’s longest-held captive of war.” In 1952, Downey was among the crew of a clandestine flight into northern China assigned to exfiltrate a courier who was supposedly carrying vital communiques. But the “air-snatch” (literally dropping a line from a slow-moving plane) was a setup, Werth writes; the asset had turned coat, the plane was shot down, and Downey and another survivor were taken captive. Within a month, Downey confessed to working for U.S. intelligence. China offered to release Downey as a spy and, over time, began allowing visits from Downey’s mother, who spoke openly with journalists about her son’s plight. But U.S. policy was to never acknowledge spies held by a hostile power; even as spy exchanges with Soviet Russia became de rigueur, Downey continued to languish, unacknowledged as an American operative because the U.S. didn’t officially recognize China’s communist government. In a dense narrative, Werth meticulously details the tangled diplomatic goals and maneuvers that contributed to Downey’s long interment and his eventual release in 1973 when the U.S. began to normalize relations with China. It adds up to a robust look at the Cold War’s perpetual limbo through the prism of one spy’s harrowing ordeal.

Starred review from July 15, 2024
The gripping tale of a victim of an early CIA debacle who spent more than two decades in a Chinese prison. Werth, journalist and author ofBanquet at Delmonico's and31 Days, relies primarily on Jack Downey's memoir, published in 2022, eight years after his death. With no access to his subject and interviews with only a few elderly colleagues, the author adds little to Downey's account of his prison years, but readers will encounter insightful details about American Cold War policy, which ensured that Downey would remain even as other Americans were released. It's well known that the fledgling CIA recruited heavily from Ivy League schools, and when a representative came calling in Downey's graduation year of 1951, there was no shortage of applicants: He and five other Yale men joined the CIA's entry class. The CIA's initial plan to roll back communism involved the infiltration of native insurgents into enemy states to support local resistance fighters. The strategy's failure in Europe did not discourage the agency from adopting it in China, where it also failed. In Manchuria, Downey's plane crashed. When he was captured, the Chinese knew he was a CIA agent even before he admitted it. American policy was to never acknowledge spies, so he was publicly proclaimed an innocent traveler. This meant that during prisoner exchanges, which occurred regularly, the Chinese refused to include him. He remained until America recognized the mainland government in 1973. Werth mixes illuminating yet painful details of Downey's interrogations, trial, and long, miserable internment with pertinent Cold War history, which featured little intelligent leadership on either side. Readers can take solace in Downey's long life following release, during which he obtained a law degree, enjoyed a modest political career, and ended life as a judge. A thrilling spy story and informative Cold War exploration.

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