364 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
364 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
Executable File
news
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obituaries
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military-obituaries
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special-forces-obituaries
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8217745
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-----
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# Frank Bessac
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## Frank Bessac, who died on December 6 aged 88, was one of two survivors of
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an epic and ill-fated trip led by the CIA in the early days of the Cold War
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which took him from the borders of Mongolia to the Tibetan capital Lhasa amid
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Great Game-style efforts to stymie communists both in China and in Russia.
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![Frank Bessac][1]
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Image 1 of 2
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Frank Bessac in Mongolian dress
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![Frank Bessac][2]
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Image 1 of 2
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Frank Bessac meeting the Dalai Lama in New York in 2009, 59 years after their
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first meeting
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6:01PM GMT 21 Dec 2010
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[Comments][3]
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Bessac, who went on to become a social anthropologist, had officially resigned
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as a spy by the time he undertook the journey. But his companion on the trip
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was a CIA officer believed by some to have been ordered to arm the Tibetans
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against the insurgent Chinese People's Liberation Army.
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A Mandarin speaker, Bessac had himself joined the CIA on its formation in
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1947, gathering intelligence on both Nationalist and Communist activity as
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China descended into civil war. He was considered for a senior role in the
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organisation, but left when he discovered that this meant working covertly and
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would stop him pursuing a new-found interest in Mongolia. Instead, he studied
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Classical Chinese and Mongolian at Fu Ren University, Peking, where he wore
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the robes of a Chinese scholar.
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In spring 1948 Bessac and Prince De, a descendant of Genghis Khan, distributed
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food aid for the US State Department's Mongol Branch of the China Relief
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Mission, for which Bessac was made an honorary Mongol and a Knight of Genghis
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Khan. In September he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship and decided to
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deepen his knowledge of Mongolian and the life of the pastoral nomad.
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Early in 1949 he travelled to Dingyaunying, near Lanzhou, central China, where
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he settled and engaged a language teacher. In August he attended a congress,
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summoned by Prince De, which proclaimed the formation of a provisional
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Mongolian Republic. But within days the whole area became engulfed in fighting
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between the Nationalists and Communists, and Bessac was forced to flee. After
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travelling 200 miles north-west by camel to Shandan, he hitched a ride on a
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truck to Hami, then travelled by air to the remote western city of Urumqi,
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where he was astonished to be met by a car flying the Stars and Stripes.
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The car belonged to the American vice-consul, Douglas Mackiernan, who was
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about to evacuate the city after the closure of the consulate. Mackiernan was,
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in fact, an undercover CIA agent who was in the region principally to spy on
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the first Soviet atom bomb test, which was eventually staged across the border
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from Urumqi at Semipalatinsk on August 29 1949.
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When Mackiernan used Bessac's old code word, it was clear that he knew Bessac
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had been a CIA man too. Mackiernan asked him whether he would be interested in
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helping Osman Bator, the anti-Communist Kazakh leader of Chinese Turkestan.
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Feeling that it would be "interesting to spend time in a Kazakh camp while
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trying to get a better deal for them with the communists or help them escape
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to Tibet", Bessac agreed. On September 27 1949, having picked up three White
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Russian refugees as they left, the two Americans duly drove out of Urumqi in a
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Jeep.
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They soon abandoned the Jeep and joined Osman Bator and his Kazakh horsemen at
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their winter camp by Barko, north of Hami ("Left Urumchi on September 27 1949
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and arrived about two weeks later in company of Ozman Bator's Kazak Hordes,"
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Mackiernan noted in his log).
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But it was clear that the Chinese Communists knew their location, so
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Mackiernan, Bessac and the White Russians set off once again, this time
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ostensibly to save their own necks from the advancing "Reds". Despite apparent
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alternative routes of escape, they headed south on horse and camelback on a
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year-long, 2,000-mile trek across almost uninhabited and unmapped territory
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out of Communist-controlled areas and towards Tibet.
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In later life Bessac was concerned to rebut suggestions that he himself had
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been working for the CIA in Tibet, but the murky story of why Mackiernan opted
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to head there was a potential embarrassment for the Americans, and information
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about the expedition was classified. If Mackiernan had been dispatched to
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stoke Tibetan national resistance to Chinese Communists, Bessac claimed to his
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dying day that he had not been privy to the plotting.
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The group crossed the edge of the Kara (or Black Gobi) desert, at times
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struggling to find water. After covering 500 miles in 30 days, they met a
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local Kazakh leader, Hussein Taiji, with whom they were to spend the winter.
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"Reached Timerlik Bulak at about 10.00am," Mackiernan noted in his journal.
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"Royal welcome by Kussaim Tadji who had yurt all ready for us. [He] has the
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largest yurt I have ever seen."
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On March 20 the following year they bought new horses and camels and set off
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on a route never before travelled by any Westerner.
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About a month after setting out, however, they had a fatal encounter. Arriving
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at a Tibetan border post near Shegarkhung Lung on April 29, they decided to
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make camp. While Bessac went over to the border post with gifts, six guards on
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horseback approached. Bessac heard shots and saw his four companions with arms
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raised. Four of the horsemen dismounted and again opened fire. Mackiernan and
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two of the Russians were killed and the third Russian was shot in the leg.
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Though Bessac and the Russian survivor were taken prisoner, the Tibetans, who
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appeared to have thought the group were Kazakh bandits, soon understood their
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mistake and treated them kindly. They set off for Lhasa and, after three days,
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the two men realised that the three round balls in a sack on a camel in front
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were the heads of their dead companions.
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It seems that Mackiernan had radioed Washington to arrange a safe crossing
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with the Tibetan authorities, but the messengers conveying the safe conduct
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arrived five days too late. The Tibetan government offered Bessac the
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opportunity to have his attackers executed or mutilated in retribution, but he
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decided on a relatively lenient 40 lashes. To his surprise, the men thanked
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him for saving their lives.
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On June 12 1950 the men arrived in Lhasa where, after about a week, they paid
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a formal visit to the Dalai Lama, then aged 14, in his summer palace. Tibet at
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that time was under threat from the approaching Chinese People's Liberation
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Army, and the Tibetan Foreign Affairs Bureau invited Bessac for discussions
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about establishing relations with the United States. Though he protested that
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he had no authority to negotiate, eventually they agreed to his suggestion
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that they should send an official request for American military aid. "The
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council voted on the proposal which was passed by only one vote," he recalled.
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"They thought the People's Republic of China would not invade until spring
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1951 and that with the threat of US military help and UN recognition they
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could save their country."
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At the end of July, the travellers left for India, and after floating down the
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Kyi Chu river for 30 miles in a coracle, they crossed the high Himalayan
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passes into Sikkim. By the time Bessac handed the Tibetans' request to
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Secretary of State Dean Acheson in Washington, however, the Chinese had
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invaded. Bessac always felt that, had Mackiernan not been killed, he might
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have had time to convince Washington to recognise Tibet soon enough to
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preserve it as a sovereign state.
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The third of four children, Frank Bagnall Bessac was born at New Vineyard,
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Lodi, California, on January 13 1922. His ancestors had migrated to New Jersey
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from France, and married into a well-established family in Connecticut. His
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great-grandparents and grandparents moved to Wisconsin and then to California
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in the Gold Rush of 1849. His parents were teachers and dairy farmers.
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After taking a degree in History at the College of the Pacific in Stockton, in
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1943 he volunteered for the Combat Engineers and applied for specialist
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training to learn Chinese at Cornell.
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He was subsequently recruited into the Office of Strategic Services (OSS),
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forerunner of the CIA, and in 1945 flew "the Hump" from India to Kunming to
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join a Chinese parachute commando unit on missions to rescue American aircrew
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who had been shot down behind enemy lines. When the war ended he was
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dispatched to Peking to assist with the surrender of Japanese troops, then
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northwards to rescue American parachutists operating in Manchuria who were
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threatened by the Soviet invasion of August 1945.
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With China descending into chaos, in March 1946 Bessac visited the Chinese
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Communist Eighth Route Army in Kalgan, about 100 miles north-west of Peking,
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towards the border with Mongolia (the name Kalgan means "frontier" in
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Mongolian).
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While there, he rode out by camel to visit the nomads on the borders of Outer
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Mongolia; they told him of their hopes for political freedom. Back in Peking,
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he was contacted by Prince De, who told Bessac of his plans to establish
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Mongolia as an autonomous state.
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After his Asian adventures, Bessac took advantage of the GI Bill to return to
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his studies. He obtained a degree in Anthropology at the University of
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California, followed by a PhD at the University of Wisconsin. He then embarked
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on a teaching career, at the universities of Texas, Lawrence, and Montana,
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where he was Professor of Anthropology from 1970 to 1989. He was the author of
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three books, including Peoples of Inner Asia (1972) and a memoir, Death on the
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Chang Tang - Tibet 1950. Last year, 59 years after their first meeting, he was
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delighted to be invited to meet the Dalai Lama again, in New York.
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Frank Bessac is survived by his wife, Susanne, whom he married in 1951, and by
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five of their six children.
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## [Special Forces Obituaries][9]
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* ### [Obituaries »][10]
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In news
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[![Eddie Chapman][13] ][14]
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### [Eddie Chapman][14]
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[![Frank Bessac][15] ][16]
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### [Frank Bessac][16]
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[![Eileen 'Didi' Nearne][17] ][18]
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### [Eileen Nearne][18]
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[![John Herivel][19] ][20]
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### [John Herivel][20]
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[![Knut Haugland][21] ][22]
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### [Knut Haugland][22]
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