Lost in the Cold War

In 1952, John T. “Jack” Downey, a twenty-three-year-old CIA officer, was shot down over Manchuria. He was captured by the Chinese and held for the next twenty years. Lost in the Cold War is the never-before-told story of Downey’s decades as a prisoner of war and the efforts to bring him home.

John T. Downey (1930–2014) was the longest-held prisoner of war in U.S. history. He went on to serve as commissioner of the Department of Public Utilities for the state of Connecticut and as a Connecticut Superior Court judge. In 2013, the CIA awarded Downey the Distinguished Intelligence Cross, the agency’s highest honor.

Thomas J. Christensen is the James T. Shotwell Professor of International Relations and director of the China and the World Program at Columbia University. He served as deputy assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2006 to 2008, and his books include The China Challenge: Shaping the Choices of a Rising Power (2015).

Jack Lee Downey is the John Henry Newman Professor of Roman Catholic Studies at the University of Rochester. He is the author of The Bread of the Strong: Lacouturisme and the Folly of the Cross, 1910–1985 (2015).

Charles Hayford, former editor of the Journal of American-East Asian Relations:
The inviting, smartly observed account of one man’s experience is all the more emotionally palpable because of its unsentimental presentation. The impressive interspersed chapters add perspective that will be invaluable to readers.