China Hands: Nine Decades of Adventure, Espionage, and Diplomacy in Asia (review)

A memoir by a man of Lilley's experience promises much. It largely meets this promise, albeit tempered by the author's obligation to his longtime employer, the Central Intelligence Agency, to maintain confidentiality concerning sensitive operations, sources, methods, and agents' identities ("Sorry, no last names" [p. 383]). If that means this account probably holds back much—which is naturally disappointing to the historian of modern China—it is understandable in light of the need to protect secrets (although to the historian it seems questionable whether secrets of over half a century ago, in the context of the Cold War, should continue to be classified).

Lilley's memoir reveals he has really led two lives. For twenty-seven years, he led the covert life, serving the CIA in various postings in Asia. Subsequently, he held a number of important public jobs, including East Asia specialist on the National Security Council (NSC), director of the quasi-diplomatic American Institute in Taiwan, Deputy Secretary of State for East Asia, and ambassador to South Korea and, finally, China.

The heart of his career was always China. Despite the reference in the book's title to Asia, and his position on the NSC as "East Asian" specialist, Japan is rarely mentioned. And no wonder. From his father's arrival in China in 1916 as a Standard Oil Company employee to the end of Lilley's tenure as ambassador to China in 1991, China was a vital part of his life. He spent his early years there, carried out covert operations against the Middle Kingdom during the Cold War years of the 1950s and 1960s, and represented his country in Taiwan and then China toward the end of his career.

He is proud of his service in the CIA. Reacting to the deaths of two CIA agents in the ugly Laotian war in the mid-1960s, he lashed out at critics (such as William Lederer and Eugene Burdick as well as Graham Greene) of such endeavors. They "could not have died in vain," he wrote. "Good Americans, not ugly or quiet ones, made a difference" (p. 131). His patriotism (even in his darkest days, he celebrated the Fourth of July) and his realistic outlook ("When dealing with China, it was important to keep one's head on straight" [p. 149].), served him well. Not for him the self-doubts of his brother, Frank.

In addition to his wife, Sally, two people merit frequent mention in Lilley's memoir. One was Frank, who was the hero of Lilley's youth. Hence, Frank's suicide in Kure in 1946 had a painful and lifelong effect on Lilley. The second was former president George Bush. As a result of their service together in China, Bush became Lilley's patron, which resulted in Lilley's string of high governmental posts in subsequent years. There are hints in Lilley's account, though, that the relationship was strained as a result of the Tiananmen Massacre.

In sum, from CIA activities around the fringes of China in the 1950s and 1960s to an insider's account of the United States' reactions to the events of the spring of 1989 in Beijing, historians of modern China and the CIA can learn much from this memoir.