Orphans of the Cold War: America and the Tibetan Struggle for Survival

by John Kenneth Knaus

Book Overview

"For decades, the United States ran covert operations into Tibet in an attempt to help Tibetan exiles take back their country from the Chinese. These operations have never been disclosed--until now."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1891620851
• ISBN13: 9781891620850
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: PublicAffairs
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Tibetan History

The book is very informative and well written. I recommend it for anyone interested in what is happening in Tibet today.

Essential to an understanding of Tibet in the 20th Century

As someone who knows the author and who provided some assistance for the initial phases of the resistance effort, this review will suffer from bias. Nonetheless in my opinion the author has done an excellent job in presenting not only the operational details in the CIA's involvement with the Tibetans, but he has mined the diplomatic sources to provide invaluable background on the genesis of our assistance. Why we became involved will become much clearer as the complex relationships and interests of India, ourselves, China, and others are detailed in the book. Although the Tibetan resistance movement is not much more than a lengthy footnote in the history of the Cold War, nonetheless it an interesting and often tragic event made even more so by the fair-minded analysis of the author and the entertaining style used in the telling. "Orphans..." is a must read for history buffs of this period and our relationships, overt and covert, in this part of the world

A truly magnificent effort that comes off beautifully

A beautifully researched book that covers the US's involvement with Tibet from 1942 to 1974. The author only spends one chapter to his personal involvement with the Tibetan resistance, the rest is the interesting political maneuvering done it the time period. The author spent several years interviewing many of the principal characters and researching the available archives. Just about every statement the author makes is backed up by a primary source. The author makes a very good attempt at an objective portrayal of the events described although his main sources, understandably, come from Tibetan, Indian and western sources. The Chinese view comes mainly from published speeches. This book is also a good source to other books about Tibet. One book by Sydney Wignall, 'Spy on the Roof of the World' is also a interesting account of Chinese/Tibetan relations in 1957.

Essential in understanding position of Tibet/China/USA today

As one who knows the author, has visited Tibet, and was involved in the fringes of the operations, I can only say that Ken Knaus has given us the background we need to understand the situation as it exists in Tibet today and the role USA/CIA played in it. A Must Read book.

The entire startling story, told for the first time.

Orphans of the Cold War is unique, invaluable, and troubling. It exposes yet one example of how ambiguous approaches to copmlex situations fail to alleviate suffering or end tyranny.