The Spy Within: Larry Chin and China's Penetration of the CIA by Tod Hoffman

Author:Tod Hoffman [Hoffman, Tod]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cia, espionage, double agent, chinese spy, chinese and america relations, larry chin
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

By the time the Chinese intervened in the Korean War and stood bayonet-to-bayonet across from Americans, Larry had insinuated himself as an important member of the US mission in Hong Kong. His translations were accurate and lucid, his work well respected.

Combat against Chinese soldiers meant not only casualties but prisoners as well. Many of those fighting as so-called volunteers were actually pressed into the Red Army. Often they were former Guomindang troops who had survived reeducation, but whose loyalty was never sure. Tossing them into the bloody battles was a convenient way to eliminate large numbers of them. Poorly equipped, inadequately dressed for the Korean winter, malnourished, and suffering intense psychological trauma from the relentless aerial bombings inflicted on their lines by the Americans, Chinese troops surrendered in droves. Indeed, Toland contends that the “majority of those surrendering were veterans of the Kuomintang who took advantage of the turn of the battle to ‘come over’ to the side of democracy.”³²

The Americans were desperate for native Chinese speakers to assist with interrogations of the prisoners. Among American citizens who had been

security-screened for military intelligence and the State Department, and were qualified to conduct such interviews, few had the requisite language ability. One possible source of linguists, Taiwan, was purposely excluded from participating in the UN contingent so as not to further antagonize the People’s Republic or give it the excuse of Taiwan’s complicity in the belligerence to try to retake the island by force. Scrambling, the United States enlisted translators it was employing for non-sensitive jobs. Among them, Larry Chin. In July 1951, State sent Larry from Hong Kong to Pusan, at the extreme tip of the South. During a three-month tour, he estimated that he was involved in questioning between 100 and 150 Chinese prisoners.³³ He probably did not conduct any of the interviews on his own, but only served to translate on behalf of an American officer.

With the combatants locked in stalemate, on July 1 North Korea and China accepted a UN invitation to discuss a cessation of hostilities. Thus began the longest truce talks in military history, involving a total of 575 meetings over two years and seventeen days.

It took five months and sixty-five meetings just to reach agreement that the 38th parallel should be the line of demarcation, thereby denying either side territorial gains. That settled, the mechanics for exchanging prisoners of war stood out as the most divisive issue. Admiral C. Turner Joy, the chief of the UN delegation to the Korean Armistice Conference, went so far as to blame this one dilemma for “delaying a truce for over a year.”³⁴ Making its case, the US attorney would hold Larry responsible for this delay and all ensuing casualties.

The UN position was that each prisoner ought to be allowed to choose whether he wanted to be repatriated or resettled elsewhere. In other words, North Koreans and mainland Chinese would have the opportunity to stay in South Korea or to seek asylum in the West. Of course, the same choice would apply equally to captured UN combatants.

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