Freeing Tibet: 50 Years of Struggle, Resilience, and Hope

320 Pages·2009·2.09 MB·English

by  John B. Roberts II

Praise for Freeing Tibet: 50 Years of Struggle, Resilience, and Hope
by John B. Roberts II and Elizabeth A. Roberts
“The more we learn about Tibet, the beauty of her people and their culture,
and the agony of her brutal subjugation under Chinese occupation, the more
we feel committed to ‘Freeing Tibet’—and we learn a lot from John and Eliza-
beth Roberts in this compelling book. The Tibetan people are the still-not-yet
fully appreciated heroes of one of the great struggles for freedom of our time—
especially great because of their overriding commitment to maintain the exact-
ing discipline of nonviolence. The Buddhist principle of nonviolence is not
merely a blind rush to martyrdom; it is also pragmatic. Forceful self-defense is
justified only if it prevents more violence than it employs. The Roberts’ tale gives
a detailed and moving account of the Tibetan warriors who tried to defend their
homes and families and monasteries, saved the Dalai Lama from capture by the
Chinese military, then ignored his teaching and took up arms in a tragically
doomed guerrilla war, and ultimately sacrificed their lives for their country. And
the authors further describe how the Dalai Lama since has won the hearts of the
world’s people for the cause of Tibet, even though governments still have not
found the insight and resolve to get the leaders of China to change their genoci-
dal policy into the more realistic live and let live appropriate for this global cen-
tury. Freeing Tibet is an absorbing read, and I heartily recommend it to all those
who will never give up on their determination to see peace and justice prevail in
our world.”
—Robert A. F. Thurman
Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Buddhist Studies,
Columbia University
President, Tibet House US
Author of Why the Dalai Lama Matters
“Shortly after he won the Nobel Peace Prize, I interviewed the Dalai Lama. It
was a hopeful moment for Tibet. The Soviet Union’s collapse meant freedom for
scores of millions and expectations were high that China might follow the path
of democracy. Until this book, those hopes seemed a distant memory. But this
remarkable panoptic history of the Tibetan struggle, from its Cold War origins to
global cause célèbre, rekindles optimism. Freeing Tibetis a call to action for con-
cerned people everywhere to use the leverage of global economic interdepend-
ence to achieve freedom and democracy for Tibet and China. This is the great-
est civil rights cause of the 21st century.”
—Dr. John McLaughlin,
Executive Producer and Host
The McLaughlin Group
“China’s remorseless goal of conquering Tibet and replacing its gracefully spir-
itual culture with collectivist rule threatens all mankind. During the ten years
between 1951 and 1961, the CIA, supported by three presidents, waged a major
and thoughtful covert war against China’s depredations in Tibet. Two obdurate
intelligence professionals, Desmond FitzGerald and Howard Bane (to whose
memory the book is dedicated) were real-life heroes in the drama. FitzGerald
and Bane thwarted every bureaucratic obstacle to achieve their own ideal of an
autonomous Tibet. Arguably, this largely unheralded endeavor to mold a part of
our future with assistance from thousands of Tibetan freedom fighters and spiri-
tual leaders will ultimately be remembered as the Agency’s purest, and possibly
as its most sequacious, exploit. These same warriors, with their Agency comrades
and sponsors, swept the Dalai Lama from Lhasa to safety in India, enabling him
to emerge as one of the world’s great teachers of Knowledge, Compassion, and
Nonviolence. Freeing Tibet tells the story of how CIA ‘meddling’ in China’s
‘internal affairs’ not only kept His Holiness and His Message from disappearing
without a trace in March 1959, but set in motion the chain of events which gave
global prominence to the cause of a Free Tibet.”
—Robert H. Campbell
27-year veteran of the CIA’s Clandestine Service
Freeing Tibet
50 Years of Struggle,
Resilience, and Hope
John B. Roberts II
Elizabeth A. Roberts
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Roberts, John B.
Freeing Tibet : 50 years of struggle, resilience, and hope / by John B.
Roberts II, Elizabeth A. Roberts. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8144-0983-1
1. Tibet (China)—History—Autonomy and independence movements.
I. Roberts, Elizabeth A. II. Title.
DS786.R568 2009
951′.505—dc22
2008042427
© 2009 John B. Roberts II and Elizabeth A. Roberts
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America.
This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted
in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy-
ing, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of AMACOM, a
division of American Management Association, 1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.
Printing number
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to Howard Thomas Bane
Friend, Mentor, Spy
August 5, 1927 – July 27, 2007
NEVER GIVE UP
No matter what is going on
Never give up
Develop the heart
Too much energy in your country
is spent developing the mind
instead of the heart
Develop the heart
Be compassionate
Not just to your friends but to everyone
Be compassionate
Work for peace
in your heart and in the world
Work for Peace
And I say it again
Never give up
No matter what is happening
No matter what is going on around you
Never give up
His Holiness the XIVth Dalai Lama
Contents
Foreword by David L. Gardiner ix
Acknowledgments xv
Introduction xix
PART ONE: STRUGGLE
1 Warriors of the Fortress of Faith 3
2 The Tennis Champion of Darjeeling 11
3 The Dharma Beatniks and the Island of the Dead 21
4 All Tsampa Eaters Must Stand Together 33
5 The Dalai Lama’s Great Escape 49
6 Eisenhower Expands the Covert War 61
7 Hearts and Minds 77
8 America’s Secret Bay of Pigs 91
vii
viii Contents
PARTTWO: RESILIENCE
9 Wheels Within Wheels 107
10 Cultural Revolutions 123
11 Nixon Embraces China 141
12 Counterculture to the Rescue 159
PARTTHREE: HOPE
13 The Dalai Lama Finds a Middle Way 177
14 The 1990s: The Tibetan Movement Goes Global 189
15 The Tibetan National Uprising of 2008 203
16 The Last Dalai Lama? 229
17 What Is to Be Done to Free Tibet? 245
Appendix NSC Directive 5412/2 262
About Sources 267
Bibliography 269
Index 273
Foreword
Not too many years ago I read an account of a conversation His
Holiness the Dalai Lama had with some of the West’s finest sci-
entists. One of the scientists candidly asked the Dalai Lama, in a
manner clearly reflecting the mutual respect and trust they had devel-
oped over time, something like the following question: “Why is it, Your
Holiness, that you have the keenest of interest in the latest advances in
modern science, can ask the most penetrating questions about esoteric
aspects of scientific theory and practice, and yet you maintain at the same
time beliefs in such things as reincarnation and the existence of oracles
who are spirits to be consulted in certain situations?”
The questioner sought assistance in understanding, what to him, was
a blatant contradiction among conflicting worldviews and a sort of cog-
nitive dissonance within a man whose powers of rational thought were
known to be remarkably astute. The Dalai Lama’s response, however, was
not likely to solve the issue for the perplexed questioner. He answered, in
effect, that there is no contradiction whatsoever in coupling a profound
knowledge of and interest in modern scientific methods with belief in the
continuation of consciousness beyond death or the existence of conscious
beings invisible to the eye. In fact, he continued, the problem lies within
the limitations that dogmatic scientific materialism can impose on one’s
imagination and, hence, on one’s capacity for broader awareness of our
actual and vast world. In the Dalai Lama’s thinking, the apparent contra-
ix