Telling Americans About China (and Intelligence) – with Sara Castro
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Summary

Dr. Sara Castro (LinkedIn), Bio)) joins Andrew (X); LinkedIn)) to discuss the history of US-China diplomacy. Sara is an Associate Professor of History at the United States Air Force Academy. 

What You’ll Learn

Intelligence

• The Dixie Mission 

• The history of US-China relations dating back to the Opium Wars

• China’s involvement with the OSS during WWII

• How Mao Zedong & Chiang Kai-shek built modern China

**Reflections **

• Understanding and empathy

• Knowledge is power

And much, much more …

**Resources **

SURFACE SKIM

Spotlight Resource

- Mission to Mao: US Intelligence in China during World War II, Sara B. Castro, (Georgetown University Press, 2024) 

SpyCasts

- Making Sense of China, Taiwan, & America) Pacific Intelligence with Bonny Lin (2023)

- China’s Corporate Spy War) with CNBC’s Eamon Javers (2023)

- Trafficking Data: The Digital Struggle with China) with Aynne Kokas (2022)

Beginner Resources

- Beyond the Balloon: The Complicated History Behind US-China Relations), Voice of America, YouTube (2023) [8 min. video]

- China’s Overlooked Role in World War II), C. Klein, The History Channel (2022) [Short article]

- Secret Agents, Secret Armies: The Short Happy Life of the OSS), The National World War II Museum (2020) [Short article]

DEEPER DIVE

Books

- Spies and Lies: How China's Greatest Covert Operations Fooled the World, A. Joske (Hardie Grant, 2022) 

- The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower, M. Pillsbury (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2016) 

- Forgotten Ally: China's World War II, 1937–1945, R. Mitter (Mariner Books, 2013)

**Primary Sources **

- Dixie Mission Remembered in Beijing) (2004)

- U.S.-PRC Political Negotiations, 1967-1984) (1985)

- CIA Intelligence Report: Mao’s “Cultural Revolution”) (1967)

- War Report: Office of Strategic Services: Operations in the Field) (1949) 

- Madame Chiang Kai-Shek Address to the U.S. House of Representatives) (1943)

- Treaty Of Tianjin) (1858)

- Treaty Of Wangxia) (1844) 

Wildcard Resource

• After the signing of the SACO Treaty) in 1942, Chinese spymaster Dai Li) took command of the US-China intelligence cooperation during World War II.

Six decades later in 2005, Nickelodeon premiered the now immensely popular American anime series Avatar: The Last Airbender. In the series, the elite secret police agency of fictional capital city Ba Sing Se are appropriately named, The Dai Li). 

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