Owen Lattimore (July 29, 1900 – May 31, 1989) was an American
Orientalist and writer. He was an influential scholar of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
and
Central Asia
Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...
, especially
Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...
. Although he never earned a college degree, in the 1930s he was editor of ''
Pacific Affairs'', a journal published by the
Institute of Pacific Relations, and taught at
Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
from 1938 to 1963. He was director of the
Walter Hines Page School of International Relations from 1939 to 1953.
[ During World War II, he was an advisor to Chiang Kai-shek and the American government and contributed extensively to the public debate on U.S. policy toward Asia. From 1963 to 1970, Lattimore was the first Professor of Chinese Studies at the ]University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...
in England.
In the early post-war period of McCarthyism
McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a Fear mongering, campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage i ...
and the Red Scare, American wartime " China Hands" were accused of being agents of the Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
or under the influence of Marxism
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...
. In 1950, Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican Party (United States), Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death at age ...
accused Lattimore in particular of being "the top Russian espionage agent in the United States." The accusations led to years of Congressional hearings that did not substantiate the charge that Lattimore had been a spy. Soviet Venona cables, decoded during WWII and declassified decades later, did not refer to Lattimore as one of the Soviet agents active in the US. The hearings did document Lattimore's sympathetic statements about Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin (born Dzhugashvili; 5 March 1953) was a Soviet politician and revolutionary who led the Soviet Union from 1924 until Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin, his death in 1953. He held power as General Secret ...
and the Soviet Union, however. In 1988 Chen Han-shen, a member of the Sorge spy ring, mentioned in his memoirs that Lattimore placed a request for a Chinese assistant through Comintern channels. Chen’s superiors dispatched him to the United States in 1936 to serve as Lattimore’s coeditor at Pacific Affairs, a position Chen used to carry out espionage activities in New York, with the help of another agent, Rao Shu-shi. The controversy put an end to Lattimore's role as a consultant of the U.S. State Department and eventually to his academic career. He died in 1989 in Providence, Rhode Island
Providence () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Rhode Island, most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. The county seat of Providence County, Rhode Island, Providence County, it is o ...
, having resided in his later years in Pawtucket.
Lattimore's "lifetime intellectual project", notes one recent scholar, was to "develop a 'scientific' model of the way human societies form, evolve, grow, decline, mutate and interact with one another along 'frontiers'." He eclectically absorbed and often abandoned influential theories of his day that dealt with the great themes of history. These included the ecological determinism of Ellsworth Huntington; biological racism, though only to the extent of seeing characteristics which grew out of ecology
Ecology () is the natural science of the relationships among living organisms and their Natural environment, environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community (ecology), community, ecosystem, and biosphere lev ...
; the economic geography
Economic geography is the subfield of human geography that studies economic activity and factors affecting it. It can also be considered a subfield or method in economics.
Economic geography takes a variety of approaches to many different topi ...
and location theory; and some aspects of Marxist modes of production and stages of history, especially through the influence of Karl August Wittfogel. The most important and lasting influence, however, was Arnold J. Toynbee and his treatment of the great civilizations as organic wholes which were born, matured, grew old, and died. Lattimore's most influential book, ''The Inner Asian Frontiers of China'' (1940), used these theories to explain the history of East Asia
East Asia is a geocultural region of Asia. It includes China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan, plus two special administrative regions of China, Hong Kong and Macau. The economies of Economy of China, China, Economy of Ja ...
not as the history of China and its influence on its neighbors, but as the interaction between two types of civilizations, settled farming and pastoral, each of which had its role in changing the other.
Early life and travel
Born in the United States, Lattimore was raised in Tianjin
Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...
, China, where his parents, David and Margaret Lattimore, were English teachers at a Chinese university. (His brother was the poet and classics scholar and translator Richmond Lattimore. One of his sisters was author Eleanor Frances Lattimore.)
After being schooled at home by his mother, he left China at the age of twelve and attended Collège Classique Cantonal near Lausanne
Lausanne ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest List of towns in Switzerland, city of the Swiss French-speaking Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud, in Switzerland. It is a hilly city situated on the shores of Lake Geneva, about halfway bet ...
, Switzerland. After war broke out in 1914, he was sent to England, where he was enrolled at St Bees School, Cumbria
Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...
, England (1915–1919). He pursued literary interests, especially poetry, and briefly converted to Catholicism. He did well on the entrance exams for Oxford University
The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
, but returned to China in 1919 when it turned out that he would not have enough funds for attending university.
He worked first for a newspaper and then for a British import/export related business. This gave him the opportunity to travel extensively in China and time to study Chinese with an old-fashioned Confucian
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...
scholar. His commercial travels also gave him a feel for the realities of life and the economy. A turning point was negotiating the passage of a trainload of wool through the lines of two battling warlords early in 1925, an experience which led him the next year to follow the caravans across Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of China. Its border includes two-thirds of the length of China's China–Mongolia border, border with the country of Mongolia. ...
to the end of the line in Xinjiang
Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
.
The managers of his firm saw no advantage in subsidizing his travels but did send him to spend a final year of employment with them in Beijing
Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...
as government liaison. During this year in Beijing before departing on his expedition, he met his wife, Eleanor Holgate. For their honeymoon they planned to travel from Beijing to India, he overland, she by rail across Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
, a mammoth feat in the first half of the 20th century. In the event, the plans were disrupted and she had to travel alone by horse-drawn sled for in February to find him. She described her journey in ''Turkestan Reunion'' (1934), he in ''The Desert Road to Turkestan'' (1928) and ''High Tartary'' (1930). This trip laid the ground for his lifelong interest in all matters related to the Mongols
Mongols are an East Asian ethnic group native to Mongolia, China ( Inner Mongolia and other 11 autonomous territories), as well as the republics of Buryatia and Kalmykia in Russia. The Mongols are the principal member of the large family o ...
and other peoples of the Silk Road
The Silk Road was a network of Asian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over , it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and religious interactions between the ...
.
Upon his return to America in 1928, he received a fellowship from the Social Science Research Council
The Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is a US-based, independent, international nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines. Established in Manhattan in 1923, it maintains a headqua ...
for further travel in Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...
, then for the academic year 1928/1929 as a student at Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. He did not, however, enroll in a doctoral program, but returned to China 1930–1933 with fellowships from the Harvard–Yenching Institute
The Harvard–Yenching Institute is an independent foundation dedicated to advancing higher education in Asia in the humanities and social sciences, with special attention to the study of Asian culture. It traditionally had close ties to Harvar ...
and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
He was awarded the Patron's Medal by the British Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
in 1942 for his travels in Central Asia. In 1943, he was elected to the American Philosophical Society
The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...
.
''Pacific Affairs'' and the Institute of Pacific Relations
In 1934, on the recommendation of treaty port journalist H.G.E. Woodhead, Lattimore was appointed editor of '' Pacific Affairs'', published by the Institute of Pacific Relations, which he edited from Beijing. Rather than have bland official statements, he made it his policy to make the journal a "forum of controversy". As he later recalled, he was "continually in hot water, especially with the Japan Council, which thought I was too anti-imperialist, and the Soviet Council, which thought that its own anti-imperialist line was the only permissible one...." As explained below, others later accused him of motives which were less scholarly than political. Lattimore sought articles from a wide range of perspectives and made the journal a forum for new ideas, especially from the social sciences and social philosophy. Scholars and writers of all persuasions were contributors, including Pearl S. Buck, some Chinese literary figures, and dedicated Marxists.
IPR secretary Edward Carter was eager to solicit the participation of Soviet scholars, and insisted that Lattimore meet him in Moscow
Moscow is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Russia by population, largest city of Russia, standing on the Moskva (river), Moskva River in Central Russia. It has a population estimated at over 13 million residents with ...
on his way back to the States. Lattimore had never been to the Soviet Union, having been denied a visa, and felt eager to obtain contributions from Soviet scholars, who had a distinguished tradition in Central Asian studies. But he was also wary because of the attacks Soviet scholars had made on him – Lattimore's "scholasticism is similar to Hamlet
''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...
's madness" – and for publishing an article by Harold Isaacs, who they considered a Trotskyite. The Lattimores spent two weeks on the Trans-Siberian Railroad with their five-year-old son before arriving in Moscow for a two-week stay toward the end of March 1936. Soviet officials coldly demanded that the IPR and its journal support collective security arrangements against Japan. Lattimore responded that ''Pacific Affairs'' had the obligation to serve all the national councils, even the Japanese, and could not take political sides. Lattimore's request to visit the Mongolian People's Republic
The Mongolian People's Republic (MPR) was a socialist state that existed from 1924 to 1992, located in the historical region of Outer Mongolia. Its independence was officially recognized by the Nationalist government of Republic of China (1912� ...
was denied on the grounds that "Mongolia now is constantly ready for war and conditions are very unstable." And in the end, Soviet scholars sent only one article to ''Pacific Affairs''.
After sojourns in New York and London, the Lattimores returned to Beijing in 1937. Owen visited the Communist headquarters at Yan'an
Yan'an; ; Chinese postal romanization, alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi Province of China, province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several c ...
to act as translator for T. A. Bisson and Philip Jaffé, who were gathering material for '' Amerasia'', an activist journal of political commentary. There he met Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...
and Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai ( zh, s=周恩来, p=Zhōu Ēnlái, w=Chou1 Ên1-lai2; 5 March 1898 – 8 January 1976) was a Chinese statesman, diplomat, and revolutionary who served as the first Premier of the People's Republic of China from September 1954 unti ...
. He was impressed with their candor, but had a less favorable experience on his visit to the party school for national minorities. When he spoke to the Mongols in Mongolian, his Chinese hosts broke off the session.
The Lattimores left China in 1938. Owen spent six months in Berkeley, California
Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...
, writing a draft of the ''Inner Asian Frontiers of China'' and continuing as editor of ''Pacific Affairs''. As editor, he then made what Robert Newman, a sympathetic biographer, called "the most serious error of his career." Lattimore published an article by a pro-Soviet writer, whom Lattimore did not know, praising Stalin's purge trials because they strengthened the Soviet Union for the coming battle against Germany and Japan. Lattimore famously stated that the show trials "sound to me like democracy". Lattimore's misjudgment of the purge trials was undoubtedly influenced by his generally favorable evaluation of Soviet foreign policy, which emphasized international cooperation against Japan and Germany and his judgment that the Soviets had been supportive of Mongol autonomy. He was "nonetheless wrong," Newman concluded.
He also soon wrote prominently against allowing Soviet expansion into China. As editor of ''Pacific Affairs'' he was expected to maintain a balance, but writing in another journal in the spring of 1940 he urged that "Above all, while we want to get Japan out of China, we do not want to let Russia in. Nor do we want to 'drive Japan into the arms of Russia.'" He continued: "the savagery of the Japanese assault is doing more to spread Communism than the teaching of the Chinese Communists themselves or the influences of Russia. It supplies the pressure under which the detonative ideas can work. At the same time it destroys Chinese wealth of every kindcapital, trade, revenue from agricultural rentthus weakening that side of Chinese society which is most antagonistic to Communism."
The ''Middlesboro Daily News'' ran an article by Owen Lattimore which reported on Japan's planned offensive into a Hui Muslim region of China in 1938, which predicted that the Japanese would suffer a massive crushing defeat at the hands of the Muslims. In 1940, the Japanese were crushed and routed by the Muslims at the Battle of West Suiyuan. The Japanese planned to invade Ningxia
Ningxia, officially the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region in Northwestern China. Formerly a province, Ningxia was incorporated into Gansu in 1954 but was later separated from Gansu in 1958 and reconstituted as an autonomous ...
from Suiyuan in 1939 and create a Hui Muslim puppet state
A puppet state, puppet régime, puppet government or dummy government is a State (polity), state that is ''de jure'' independent but ''de facto'' completely dependent upon an outside Power (international relations), power and subject to its ord ...
. The following year in 1940, the Japanese were defeated militarily by the Kuomintang
The Kuomintang (KMT) is a major political party in the Republic of China (Taiwan). It was the one party state, sole ruling party of the country Republic of China (1912-1949), during its rule from 1927 to 1949 in Mainland China until Retreat ...
Muslim General Ma Hongbin, who caused the plan to collapse. Ma Hongbin's Hui Muslim troops launched further attacks against Japan in the Battle of West Suiyuan. In Suiyuan 300 Mongol collaborators serving the Japanese were fought off by a single Muslim who held the rank of Major at the Battle of Wulan Obo in 1939 April.
World War II
Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union
The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...
in June 1941, President Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
appointed Lattimore to serve as US advisor to Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek for one and a half years. Lattimore advocated on behalf of the ethnic minorities in China
Ethnic minorities in China are the non-Han Chinese, Han population in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The PRC officially recognizes 55 ethnic minority groups within China in addition to the Han majority. , the combined population ...
, arguing that China should adopt a cultural autonomy policy based on the Soviet Union's minority policy, which he regarded as "one of the most successful Soviet policies." His advice was mostly disregarded by Chiang's officials, as defense secretary Wang Ch'ung-hui suspected Lattimore of understating Soviet interference in Xinjiang
Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...
and Outer Mongolia.
In 1944, Lattimore was placed in charge of the Pacific area for the Office of War Information
The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was a United States government agency created during World War II. The OWI operated from June 1942 until September 1945. Through radio broadcasts, newspapers, posters, photographs, films and other ...
. By this time, Lattimore's political activities and associations had been under scrutiny for the last two years by the FBI, which recommended Lattimore be put under "Custodial Detention in case of National Emergency".
At President Roosevelt's request, he accompanied U.S. Vice-President Henry A. Wallace on a mission to Siberia
Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
, China, and Mongolia in 1944 for the U.S. Office of War Information. The trip had been arranged by Lauchlin Currie, who recommended to FDR that Lattimore accompany Wallace. During this visit, which overlapped the D-Day
The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...
landings, Wallace and his delegates stayed 25 days in Siberia and were given a tour of the Soviet Union's Magadan
Magadan ( rus, Магадан, p=məɡɐˈdan) is a Port of Magadan, port types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative centre of Magadan Oblast, Russia. The city is located on the isthmus of the Staritsky Peninsula by the ...
Gulag
The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...
camp at Kolyma. In a travelogue for ''National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...
'', Lattimore described what little he saw as a combination of the Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...
and the Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolin ...
, remarking on how strong and well-fed the inmates were and ascribing to camp commandant Ivan Nikishov "a trained and sensitive interest in art and music and also a deep sense of civic responsibility". In a letter written to the ''New Statesman
''The New Statesman'' (known from 1931 to 1964 as the ''New Statesman and Nation'') is a British political and cultural news magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first c ...
'' in 1968, Lattimore justified himself by arguing his role had not been one to "snoop on his hosts." (In contrast, camp commander Naftaly Frenkel explained: "We have to squeeze everything out of a prisoner in the first three months – after that we don't need him anymore." The system of hard labor and minimal or no food reduced most prisoners to helpless "goners" (''dokhodyaga'', in Russian). Conditions varied depending on the state of the country.)
During the 1940s, Lattimore came into increasing conflict with another member of the IPR's board, Alfred Kohlberg, a manufacturer with long experience in the China trade whose visit to China in 1943 convinced him that stories of Chiang Kai-shek's corruption were false. He accused Lattimore of being hostile to Chiang and too sympathetic towards the Chinese Communist Party
The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...
.
In 1944, relations between Kohlberg and Lattimore became so bad that Kohlberg left the IPR and founded a new journal, '' Plain Talk'', in which he attempted to rebut the claims made in ''Pacific Affairs''. By the late 1940s, Lattimore had become a particular target of Kohlberg and other members of the China Lobby. Kohlberg was later to become an advisor to Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican Party (United States), Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death at age ...
, and it is possible that McCarthy first learned of Lattimore's communist tendencies through Kohlberg.
Accused of espionage
Meanwhile, accusations were made, which later became public. On 14 December 1948, Alexander Barmine, former ''chargé d'affaires
A (), plural ''chargés d'affaires'', often shortened to ''chargé'' (French) and sometimes in colloquial English to ''charge-D'', is a diplomat who serves as an embassy's chief of mission in the absence of the ambassador. The term is Frenc ...
'' at the Soviet Embassy in Athens
Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...
, Greece, advised Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...
agents that Soviet GRU
Gru is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the ''Despicable Me'' film series.
Gru or GRU may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Gru (rapper), Serbian rapper
* Gru, an antagonist in '' The Kine Saga''
Organizations Georgia (c ...
Director Yan Karlovich Berzin
Yan (Ian) Karlovich Berzin (; ; real name Pēteris Ķuzis; – 29 July 1938) was a Latvian and Soviet communist politician and military intelligence officer.
Biography
Ķuzis joined the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party in 1905. Accordi ...
had informed him prior to Barmine's 1937 defection that Lattimore was a Soviet agent, an allegation Barmine would repeat under oath before the Senate McCarran Committee in 1951.
Congressional investigation
In March 1950, in executive session of the Tydings Committee, Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican Party (United States), Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death at age ...
accused Lattimore of being the top Soviet agent, either in the US, in the State Department, or both. The committee, chaired by Senator Millard Tydings, was investigating McCarthy's claims of widespread Soviet infiltration of the State Department. When the accusation was leaked to the press, McCarthy backed off from the charge that Lattimore was a spy but continued the attack in public session of the committee and in speeches.
Lattimore, he said, "in view of his position of tremendous power at the State Department" was the "'architect' of our Far Eastern policy" and asked whether Lattimore's "aims are American aims or whether they coincide with the aims of Soviet Russia." At the time, Lattimore was in Kabul
Kabul is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province. The city is divided for administration into #Districts, 22 municipal districts. A ...
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...
, on a cultural mission for the United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...
. Lattimore dismissed the charges against him as "moonshine" and hurried back to the United States to testify before the Tydings Committee.
McCarthy, who had no evidence of specific acts of espionage and only weak evidence that Lattimore was a concealed Communist, in April 1950 persuaded Louis F. Budenz, the now-anticommunist
Anti-communism is Political movement, political and Ideology, ideological opposition to communism, communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global ...
former editor of the Communist Party organ '' Daily Worker,'' to testify. Budenz had no first-hand knowledge of Lattimore's Communist allegiance and had never previously identified him as a Communist in his extensive FBI interviews. In addition, Budenz had in 1947 told a State Department investigator that he "did not recall any instances" that suggested that Lattimore was a Communist and had also told his editor at ''Collier's
}
''Collier's'' was an American general interest magazine founded in 1888 by Peter F. Collier, Peter Fenelon Collier. It was launched as ''Collier's Once a Week'', then renamed in 1895 as ''Collier's Weekly: An Illustrated Journal'', shortened i ...
'' magazine in 1949 that Lattimore had never "acted as a Communist in any way."
Now, however, Budenz testified that Lattimore was a secret Communist but not a Soviet agent; he was a person of influence who often assisted Soviet foreign policy. Budenz said his party superiors had told him that Lattimore's "great value lay in the fact that he could bring the emphasis in support of Soviet policy in non-Soviet language." The majority report of the Tydings committee cleared Lattimore of all charges against him; the minority report accepted Budenz's charges.
In February 1952, Lattimore was called to testify before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee
The United States Senate's Special Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, 1951–77, known more commonly as the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (SISS) and sometimes the M ...
(SISS), headed by McCarthy's ally, Senator Pat McCarran. Before Lattimore was called as witness, investigators for the SISS had seized all of the records of the Institute of Pacific Relations (IPR). The twelve days of testimony were marked by shouting matches, which pitted McCarran and McCarthy on one side against Lattimore on the other. Lattimore took three days to deliver his opening statement: the delays were caused by frequent interruptions as McCarran challenged Lattimore point by point. McCarran then used the records from the IPR to ask questions that often taxed Lattimore's memory. Budenz again testified, but this time claimed that Lattimore was both a Communist and a Soviet agent.
The subcommittee also summoned scholars. Nicholas Poppe, a Russian émigré and a scholar of Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...
and Tibet
Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
, resisted the committee's invitation to label Lattimore a Communist but found some of his writings superficial and uncritical. The most damaging testimony came from Karl August Wittfogel, supported by his colleague from the University of Washington
The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
, George Taylor. Wittfogel, a former Communist, said that at the time Lattimore edited the journal '' Pacific Affairs'', Lattimore knew of his Communist background; even though they had not exchanged words on the matter, Lattimore had given Wittfogel a "knowing smile."
Lattimore acknowledged that Wittfogel's thought had been tremendously influential but said that if there had been a smile, it was a "non-Communist smile". Wittfogel and Taylor charged that Lattimore had done "great harm to the free world" in disregarding the need to defeat world Communism as a first priority. John K. Fairbank, in his memoirs, suggests that Wittfogel may have said this because he had been made to leave Germany for having views unacceptable to the powers that be, and he did not want to make the same mistake twice. They also asserted that the influence of Marxism on Lattimore was shown by his use of the word "feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was a combination of legal, economic, military, cultural, and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe from the 9th to 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a way of struc ...
." Lattimore replied that he did not think that Marxists had a "patent" on that word.
In 1952, after 17 months of study and hearing, involving 66 witnesses and thousands of documents, the McCarran Committee issued its 226-page, unanimous final report. This report stated that "Owen Lattimore was, from some time beginning in the 1930s, a conscious articulate instrument of the Soviet conspiracy
A conspiracy, also known as a plot, ploy, or scheme, is a secret plan or agreement between people (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder, treason, or corruption, especially with a political motivat ...
," and that on "at least five separate matters," Lattimore had not told the whole truth. One example: "The evidence... shows conclusively that Lattimore knew Frederick V. Field to be a Communist; that he collaborated with Field after he possessed this knowledge; and that he did not tell the truth before the subcommittee about this association with Field...."
On December 16, 1952, Lattimore was indicted for perjury
Perjury (also known as forswearing) is the intentional act of swearing a false oath or falsifying an affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to an official proceeding."Perjury The act or an insta ...
on seven counts. Six of the counts related to various discrepancies between Lattimore's testimony and the IPR records; the seventh accused Lattimore of seeking to deliberately deceive the SISS. Lattimore's defenders, such as his lawyer Abe Fortas
Abraham Fortas (June 19, 1910 – April 5, 1982) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1965 to 1969. Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Fortas graduated from Rho ...
, claimed that the discrepancies were caused by McCarran deliberately asking questions about arcane and obscure matters that took place in the 1930s.
Within three years, federal judge Luther Youngdahl dismissed the perjury charges on technical grounds. United States v. Lattimore, 127 F. Supp. 405 (D.D.C. 1955).
Four of the charges were dismissed as insubstantial and not judicable; denying that he was sympathetic to communism was too vague to be fairly answered; and the other counts were matters of little concern, those for which a jury would be unlikely to convict on matters of political judgment. In his book ''Ordeal by Slander'', Lattimore gives his own account of these events up until 1950.
In his 1979 memoir, former FBI agent William C. Sullivan said that, despite Hoover's relentless efforts, the FBI never found "anything substantial" and that the accusations against Lattimore were "ridiculous."
Legacy
In 1963, he was recruited from Johns Hopkins University
The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...
to establish the Department of Chinese Studies (now East Asian Studies) at the University of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a public research university in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It was established in 1874 as the Yorkshire College of Science. In 1884, it merged with the Leeds School of Medicine (established 1831) and was renamed Y ...
. In addition to setting up Chinese Studies, he promoted Mongolian Studies, building good relations between Leeds and Mongolia and establishing a programme in Mongolian Studies in 1968. He remained at Leeds until he retired as Emeritus
''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus".
In some c ...
Professor in 1970.
In 1984 the University of Leeds conferred the degree of Doctor of Letters
Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or '), also termed Doctor of Literature in some countries, is a terminal degree in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In the United States, at universities such as Drew University, the degree ...
(DLitt) on Emeritus Professor Lattimore honoris causa
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or ''ad hono ...
.
Lattimore had a lifelong dedication to establishing research centres to further the study of Mongolian history and culture. In 1979 he became the first Westerner to be awarded the Order of the Polar Star, the highest award that the Mongolian state gives to foreigners. The State Museum in Ulaanbaatar
Ulaanbaatar is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities in Mongolia, most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1.6 million, and it is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The municipa ...
named a newly discovered dinosaur after him in 1986.
The American Centre for Mongolian Studies, together with the International Association of Mongolian Studies and the National University of Mongolia School of Foreign Service, organized a conference entitled "Owen Lattimore: The Past, Present, and Future of Inner Asian Studies" in Ulaanbaatar
Ulaanbaatar is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities in Mongolia, most populous city of Mongolia. It has a population of 1.6 million, and it is the coldest capital city in the world by average yearly temperature. The municipa ...
, Mongolia
Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...
, on August 20 and 21, 2008.
Prominent figures in the anti-Communist American political left offered mixed evaluations of Lattimore's legacy in foreign policy. Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. thought that while Lattimore was not a Soviet spy, he may have been a fellow traveler who was deeply committed to communist ideals, and Sidney Hook similarly proclaimed Latimore "a devious and skillful follower of the Communist Party line on Asian affairs”.
Theory
Historian Peter Perdue wrote that "Modern historians, anthropologists, and archaeologists have revised many of Lattimore's arguments, but they still rely on his insights. All of the themes addressed by Lattimore continue to inspire world historians today."
In ''An Inner Asian Approach to the Historical Geography of China'' (1947), Lattimore explored the system through which humanity affects the environment and is changed by it, and concluded that civilization is molded by its own impact on the environment. He lists the following pattern:
# A primitive society pursues some agricultural activities, but is aware that it has many limitations.
# Growing and evolving, the society begins to change the environment. For example, depleting its game supply and wild crops, it begins to domesticate animals and plants. It deforests land to create room for these activities.
# The environment changes, offering new opportunities. For example, it becomes grasslands
A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur ...
.
# Society changes in response, and reacts to the new opportunities as a new society. For example, the once-nomads build permanent settlements and shift from a hunter-gatherer
A hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living in a community, or according to an ancestrally derived Lifestyle, lifestyle, in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local naturally occurring sources, esp ...
mentality to a farming society culture.
# The reciprocal process continues, offering new variations.
Publications
* 1928: '' The Desert Road to Turkestan.'' London: Methuen. .
**1929 (reprint): Boston
Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
: Little Brown; 1972 (reprint with new introduction): New York: AMS Press; 1995 (reprint): New York: Kodansha International.
* 1930: '' High Tartary.'' Boston: Little Brown.
**1994 (reprint): New York: Kodansha International.
* 1932
''Manchuria: Cradle of Conflict''.
New York: Macmillan. Revised in 1935.
* 1933: ''The Gold tribe, "Fishskin Tatars" of the lower Sungari''. Menasha, WI: American Anthropological Association
The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an American organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropo ...
* 1933
"The Unknown Frontier of Manchuria."
''Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit organization, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership or ...
'', vol. 11, no. 2 (January 1933).
* 1934:
The Mongols of Manchuria: Their Tribal Divisions, Geographical Distribution, Historical Relations With Manchus and Chinese, and Present Political Problems.
' New York: John Day (with maps).
** 1969 (reprint): New York: H. Fertig.
* 1934: "China and the Barbarians." In: Joseph Barnes, ed. ''Empire in the East''. New York: Doubleday, pp. 3–36.
** 1970 (reprint). .
* 1935
"On the Wickedness of Being Nomads."
'' T'ien Hsia Monthly'', vol. 1, no. 1 (August 1935), pp. 47–62.
* 1940: '' Inner Asian Frontiers of China.'' International Research Series. New York: American Geographical Society
The American Geographical Society (AGS) is an organization of professional geographers, founded in 1851 in New York City. Most fellows of the society are United States, Americans, but among them have always been a significant number of fellows f ...
, in conjunction with the Secretariat of the Institute of Pacific Relations.
**1967 (reprint): Boston: Beacon Press
Beacon Press is an American left-wing non-profit book publisher. Founded in 1854 by the American Unitarian Association, it is currently a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association. It is known for publishing authors such as Jame ...
.
* 1941: ''Mongol Journeys''. New York: Doubleday Doran.
* 1941
"Stalemate in China."
''Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit organization, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership or ...
'', vol. 19, no. 3 (April 1941).
* 1942
"The Fight for Democracy in Asia."
''Foreign Affairs
''Foreign Affairs'' is an American magazine of international relations and foreign policy of the United States, U.S. foreign policy published by the Council on Foreign Relations, a nonprofit organization, nonprofit, nonpartisan, membership or ...
'', vol. 20, no. 4 (July 1942).
* 1942: "China Opens Her Wild West." Washington, D.C.: ''National Geographic Society
The National Geographic Society, headquartered in Washington, D.C., United States, is one of the largest nonprofit scientific and educational organizations in the world.
Founded in 1888, its interests include geography, archaeology, natural sc ...
'', Vol. 182, No. 3, September 1942.
* 1943
''America and Asia: Problems of Today's War and the Peace of Tomorrow''.
Claremont, Calif.: Claremont Colleges
The Claremont Colleges (known colloquially as the 7Cs) are a consortium of seven private university, private institutions of higher education located in Claremont, California, United States. They comprise five undergraduate colleges (the 5Cs)� ...
. Foreword by Admiral
Admiral is one of the highest ranks in many navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force. Admiral is ranked above vice admiral and below admiral of ...
Harry E. Yarnell.
* 1944
''The Making of Modern China: A Short History''
with Eleanor Holgate Lattimore. New York: W. W. Norton.
**1944 (reprint): Washington, D.C.: '' Infantry Journal''.
* 1945: '' Solution in Asia.'' Boston: Little Brown. .
* 1947
"An Inner Asian Approach to the Historical Geography of China."
'' Geographical Journal'' (UK), vol. 110, no. 4/6 (Oct./Dec. 1947), pp. 180–187. .
* 1947: ''China: A Short History'', with Eleanor Holgate Lattimore. New York: W. W. Norton. Revised edition.
* 1949: '' The Situation in Asia.'' Boston: Little Brown.
* 1950: '' Pivot of Asia: Sinkiang and the Inner Asian Frontiers of China and Russia.'' Boston: Little Brown.
* 1950: '' Ordeal by Slander.'' Boston: Little Brown. .
**2004 (reprint): New York: Carroll & Graf. Introduction by Blanche Wiessen Cook. Preface by David Lattimore.
* 1953
"The New Political Geography of Inner Asia."
Great Britain: '' Geographical Journal'', vol. CXIX, no. 1 (March 1953).
**Reprint: London: William Clowes and Sons.
* 1955
''Nationalism and Revolution in Mongolia''
with Sh. Nachukdorgi. New York: Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
.
* 1962:
Nomads and Commissars: Mongolia Revisited
'. New York: Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
. .
* 1962
''Studies in Frontier History: Collected Papers, 1928–1958''.
London: Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
; Paris: Mouton.
* 1964
''From China, Looking Outward: An Inaugural Lecture''.
Leeds
Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...
: Leeds University Press.
* 1968: '' Silks, Spices, and Empire: Asia Seen Through the Eyes of Its Discoverers,'' ed. with Eleanor Holgate Lattimore. New York: Delacorte.
** 1973 (reprint): London: Universal-Tandem
* 1970:
History and Revolution in China.
' Lund: Studentlitteratur.
* 1982: ''The Diluv Khutagt: Memoirs and Autobiography of a Mongol Buddhist Reincarnation in Religion and Revolution''. Wiesbaden
Wiesbaden (; ) is the capital of the German state of Hesse, and the second-largest Hessian city after Frankfurt am Main. With around 283,000 inhabitants, it is List of cities in Germany by population, Germany's 24th-largest city. Wiesbaden form ...
: O. Harrassowitz. .
* 1990:
China Memoirs: Chiang Kai-shek and the War Against Japan.
' Compiled by Fujiko Isono. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. .
** Japanese translation available. .
References
References and further reading
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* Also available a
Hathi Trust.
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Full text online.
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External links
FBI reports from the espionage investigation of Lattimore
5161 pages
*
'
Owen Lattimore interview
by Caroline Humphrey, filmed by Alan Macfarlane (May 21, 1983) via University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
Owen Lattimore: A Register of His Papers
in the Library of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
, 1998.
American Center for Mongolian Studies Library
. Brief biography of Lattimore, with links to books by or about him and relevant websites.
The Papers of Owen Lattimore
at Dartmouth College Library
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lattimore, Owen
1900 births
1989 deaths
20th-century American non-fiction writers
20th-century American writers
Academics of the University of Leeds
American expatriates in China
American expatriates in the United Kingdom
American non-fiction writers
American orientalists
Anti-communism in the United States
China Hands
Mongolists
People educated at St Bees School
People of the United States Office of War Information
Social Science Research Council
Victims of McCarthyism
Members of the American Philosophical Society