Spies who came back from the dead

Detail by painful detail, the CIA is coming to grips with one of the most devastating episodes in its history, a botched cloak-and-dagger flight into China that stole two decades of freedom from a pair of fresh-faced American operatives and cost the lives of their two pilots.

In opening up about the 1952 debacle, the CIA is finding ways to use it as a teaching tool. Mistakes of the past can serve as cautionary tales for today's spies and paramilitary officers.

At the centre of the story are two eager CIA paramilitary officers on their first overseas assignment, John T. Downey and Richard G. Fecteau, whose plane was shot from the night sky in a Chinese ambush.

The mission was smothered in US Government denials, sealed in official secrecy and consigned to the darkest corner of the spy agency's vault of unpleasant affairs.

Downey was the youngest of the four. At 22, with one year of CIA service, he was destined to spend the next 20 years, three months and 14 days in Chinese prisons. His CIA partner, Fecteau, was 25. He was behind bars for 19 years and 14 days.

Both survived. Their pilots, Robert C. Snoddy, 31, and 29-year-old Norman A. Schwartz did not.

Bits and pieces of the story surfaced over the years. But the lid was largely intact until a series of disclosures - some required of the CIA, some not - revealed a tale of tragedy, miscalculation, misery and personal triumph, as well as the agency's misplaced confidence it could manipulate events in China.

Three years ago, the CIA declassified an internal history of the affair. Now it's hired a filmmaker to produce an hour-long documentary.

The CIA does not plan to release the film publicly. But the agency premiered it for employees at its Langley, Virginia, headquarters.

Downey and Fecteau declined through CIA officials to be interviewed for this story. They attended the film screening and were flooded with applause.

Their tale forms part of the backdrop to today's uneasy US-China relationship, especially Beijing's anger over American military support for China's anti-communist rivals on Taiwan.

In the early years of the Cold War, the CIA had a rudimentary paramilitary force - those with specialised skills to conduct high-risk, behind-the-lines operations.

Downey and Fecteau were assigned to a covert programme called "Third Force", intended to create a resistance network.

~ more... ~