Summary
Dr. Sara Castro (LinkedIn, Bio) joins Andrew (X; LinkedIn) to discuss the history of US-China diplomacy. Sara is an Associate Professor of History at the United States Air Force Academy.
What You’ll Learn
Intelligence
The Dixie Mission
The history of US-China relations dating back to the Opium Wars
China’s involvement with the OSS during WWII
How Mao Zedong & Chiang Kai-shek built modern China
Reflections
Understanding and empathy
Knowledge is power
And much, much more …
Resources
SURFACE SKIM
*Spotlight Resource*
Mission to Mao: US Intelligence in China during World War II, Sara B. Castro, (Georgetown University Press, 2024)
*SpyCasts*
Making Sense of China, Taiwan, & America Pacific Intelligence with Bonny Lin (2023)
China’s Corporate Spy War with CNBC’s Eamon Javers (2023)
Trafficking Data: The Digital Struggle with China with Aynne Kokas (2022)
*Beginner Resources*
Beyond the Balloon: The Complicated History Behind US-China Relations, Voice of America, YouTube (2023) [8 min. video]
China’s Overlooked Role in World War II, C. Klein, The History Channel (2022) [Short article]
Secret Agents, Secret Armies: The Short Happy Life of the OSS, The National World War II Museum (2020) [Short article]
DEEPER DIVE
Books
Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World, A. Joske (Hardie Grant, 2022)
The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower, M. Pillsbury (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2016)
Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937–1945, R. Mitter (Mariner Books, 2013)
Primary Sources
Dixie Mission Remembered in Beijing (2004)
U.S.-PRC Political Negotiations, 1967-1984 (1985)
CIA Intelligence Report: Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” (1967)
War Report: Office of Strategic Services: Operations in the Field (1949)
Madame Chiang Kai-Shek Address to the U.S. House of Representatives (1943)
Treaty Of Tianjin (1858)
Treaty Of Wangxia (1844)
*Wildcard Resource*
After the signing of the SACO Treaty in 1942, Chinese spymaster Dai Li took command of the US-China intelligence cooperation during World War II.
Six decades later in 2005, Nickelodeon premiered the now immensely popular American anime series Avatar: The Last Airbender. In the series, the elite secret police agency of fictional capital city Ba Sing Se are appropriately named, The Dai Li.
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Telling Americans About China (and Intelligence) – with Sara Castro | SpyCast podcast - Listen or read transcript on Metacast
