Reply #68: The CIA's Buddhist affair

[MinM]

Mar 14, 2009 04:30 AM

Brett Popplewell
Staff Reporter

Around the world this week, as monks, exiles and supporters of the Dalai Lama marked the 50th anniversary of a failed Tibetan uprising, politicians and state-run media outlets in Beijing preached at length about the Communist Party's liberation of Tibetan slaves.

Meanwhile, in suburban Washington, John Kenneth Knaus, a retired CIA officer who led a covert command centre from New Delhi 50 years ago, worked on a new book about 100 years of American involvement in Tibet, including his own experiences feeding weapons and supplies to monks and resistance fighters.

On March 10, 1959, thousands of Tibetans surrounded the Dalai Lama's palace in Lhasa for fear that their spiritual leader might soon be abducted by the occupying force Mao Zedong had maintained in Tibet since 1950. Soon, protesters across the region were declaring Tibet's independence.

Seven days later the Dalai Lama was gone, spirited out of the country on horseback to India.

Some estimate more than 85,000 Tibetans died in the conflict that ensued as the Chinese army cracked down on the revolt.

Knaus had been working on the CIA's Tibetan file since the mid-1950s. Before taking up his post in New Delhi, he had helped train some 300 Tibetan resistance fighters in Colorado.

He says no American operatives were ever dropped into Tibet, though he says that in July 1958 and February 1959, the CIA did airdrop guns, hand grenades and rounds of munitions...

No surprises

That the CIA and Allen Dulles are to be found as one of the reasons for the rift between the Chinese government and the Dalai Lama comes as no surprise. That the U.S. bears a large chunk of responsibility for the ongoing disaster in the China-Tibet relationship is unlikely to be acknowledged, just like similar screw-ups in SE Asia, Iran, and Latin America. At the very least the U.S. should come clean about the true role of the Dalai Lama in this misbegotten exercise, if they are really serious about helping these two parties resolve their 50-year-long conflict.

Submitted by anatman29 at 11:06 AM Saturday, March 14 2009
http://www.thestar.com/News/Insight/article/602187