The Foreign Service Journal, May 2012

I n 1954, Foreign Service officer John PatonDavies Jr.was firedby theDepart- ment of State for dissent. Patricia “Tiki”Davies (one of Johnand PatriciaDavies’ seven children) andTodd S. Purdum, national editor of Vanity Fair , came to AFSA headquarters onMarch 19 to share China Hand , An Autobiography , (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012). Davies was born in China in 1908 to American Baptist missionaries, and grad- uated fromColumbia University in 1931. Shortly thereafter, he took theFS examand joined the Service in 1932. His first pro- bationary duty was at the American con- sulate in Windsor, Ontario, earning “a princely stipend of $2,500 a year,” Davies recounted. The audience listened in rapt attention, often breaking into laughter, from China Hand as PurdumandTiki took turns read- ing or relatingmoments inDavies’ life and career. They painted a vivid picture of a man who held strong beliefs, made “un- cannily prescient judgments” and had a grand sense of humor. His Foreign Service assignments took the family to India, Russia and China, among other posts. Davies’ career crossed pathswithahost of famous and important players of the day. Similar to “Forrest Gump”orWoodyAllen’s “Zelig,”he came to know (and they to knowhim) the likes of Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohandas Gandhi, Franklin D. Roosevelt, General GeorgeC.Marshall, Eric Sevareid,Wendell Willkie, LordMountbatten and evenNoel Coward and Frank Capra. On Nov. 3, 1954, the department ordered Davies to return to Washington, D.C., fromLima, where he was serving as deputy chief of mission. Two days later, Davies met with Secretary of State John Foster Dulles who, after brief pleasantries, informed him that the department’s Loyalty Security Board had concluded that Davies was “not a communist or otherwise disloyal, butwas lacking in judg- ment, discretion and reliability.” He was then separated from the Service. Why was he fired? Before the end of World War II, Davies hadpredictedMaoZe- dong’s communists would prevail over U.S.-backed Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist government. He counseled the U.S. government that “the communists were there to stay.” To some, this made Davies out tobe anti-ChiangKai-shekand, therefore, pro-communist. By the1950s, Senator JosephMcCarthy, R-Wis., hadwhippedupa frenzyof domes- tichysteriabasedonhis belief that the com- munists would infiltrate U.S. institutions and take over the country. Without any substantiation, thousands of Americans wereaccusedof beingpro-communist sym- pathizers. U.S. government employees, educators, entertainers and union leaders were particularly targeted. Many lost their jobs, their careersor theirhomes; somewere blacklisted, others imprisoned. After his meeting with Dulles, Davies returned to Lima. Tiki recalled that their parents spoke little about what had hap- pened to JPD, but they knew that he had lost his job and his pension. “He told us they offered to let him resign, but he pre- ferred to be fired. We didn’t have much money, but we didn’t live in poverty. At school, we felt as though we had become expats in our expat world.” After spending a year trying out new careers, Davies ultimately started a furni- ture factory, producinghisownaward-win- ning designs from local hardwoods. The family remained in Peru for 12 years. In his forward to the book, Purdum states, “It was the great tragedy of Davies’ life — and the searing cautionary crux of this book — that in the most parlous of those times, John Paton Davies’ country was deprived of his services.” In1969,Davies finally succeeded inget- ting his security clearance and pension restored. He was never reinstated in the Foreign Service, however. At the end of their presentation, Tiki Davies stamped JPD’s seal on copies of China Hand for those who purchased the book. 48 F OR E I GN S E R V I C E J OU R N A L / MA Y 2 0 1 2 A F S A N E W S AFSA BOOK NOTES Dissent in the Time of Hysteria BY DONNA AYERST, AFSA NEWS EDITOR Patricia “Tiki” Davies (center) signs her father’s book, China Hand , for mem- bers of the audience. Davies played a pivotal role in getting the book pub- lished. Todd Purdum, national editor of Vanity Fair, reads a passage from China Hand during AFSA’s Book Notes program on March 19. DONNA AYERST DONNA AYERST