John Carter Vincent

John Carter Vincent (August 19 1900 – December 3 1972) was an American diplomat, Foreign Service Officer, and China Hand.

Biography

In 1951 he was accused of having been a member of the Communist Party by former Party activist Louis F. Budenz. Budenz testified in the summer of 1951 that Vincent had been a member of the Communist Party. Budenz, however, indicated he had no personal knowledge of this, basing his opinion on what he had overheard other party leaders say about Vincent, in the context of expressing their hostility to the rabid anti-communism of Ambassador Patrick Hurley, whom they thought Vincent could replace.

Similar accusations were made against all the China Hands, based on their exposure of the ineptitude and corruption of Chaing Kai Shek's regime and the fact that Mao and the Chinese Communists, also part of the Allied coalition at the time, were making substantial inroads with the peasants in carrying out a genuine and historic social revolution while shouldering the brunt of the fight against the Japanese. Based on that, it was Vincent and the China Hands' view that the Chinese Communists had their own genuine domestic roots that might possibly trump any ideological loyalty to the USSR, as was occurring at the time with Tito's Yugoslavia, which the U.S. should try to take advantage of, an eventuality that ultimately came to pass beginning in 1962 and it was exactly this perspective in China policy that Nixon and Kissinger began to implement in 1972.

After having been cleared by numerous administrative security panels of any disloyalty, in December 1952 the Civil Service Loyalty Review Board by a one vote margin found reasonable doubt regarding Vincent's loyalty and in 1953 Secretary Dulles requested Vincent's resignation. Dean Acheson, Truman's Secretary of State, steadfastly defended Vincent, whom he felt, like the China Hands generally, were being unfairly and demagogically maligned for honestly conveying inconvenient facts and tried to intervene with Dulles to save Vincent's career.

He died on December 3 1972. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=John Carter Vincent Dies. Specialist on China Policy. Diplomat Was Dismissed Despite Loyalty Report. |url=http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30C16FD35591A7493C7A91789D95F468785F9 |quote=John Carter Vincent, a China specialist and former director of the State Department's Office of Far Eastern Affairs, died Sun- day ... |work=New York Times |date=December 5 1972 |accessdate=2008-08-15 ]

References