Books in Brief: The China Cloud

The China Cloud, by William L. Ryan and Sam Summerlin (Little, Brown, $7.95). The authors, a pair of senior Associated Press reporters, have attempted to graft a Sunday-supplement type rundown on recent events on the China mainland onto a short account of the American training and career of Communist China’s top missile expert. The first part in reality is an exercise in historical anti-McCarthyism. The subject is Tsein Hue-shen, a top Cal Tech aeronautical scientist, key adviser to the Air Force during and after World War II, and a recipient of various government service awards. In 1950 Tsein fell under suspicion due to his close associations with some members of the Communist Party’s Cal Tech Unit 122. His eventual deportation from the U.S. meant that the Chinese Communists were gaining an acknowledged scientific genius. The authors of The China Cloud would have us conclude that U.S. concern with Communist infiltration led to the “astounding speed” with which China acquired a thermonuclear capability; but their chain of reasoning fails to hold water. If the story proves anything, it is only that most scientists tend to be incredibly naïve about politics and that most government bureaucrats are incredibly naïve about the dangers in deporting men such as Tsein.

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James Burnham

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The China Cloud, by William L. Ryan and Sam Summerlin (Little, Brown, $7.95). The authors, a pair of senior Associated Press reporters, have attempted to graft a Sunday-supplement type rundown on recent events on the China mainland onto a short account of the American training and career of Communist China’s top missile expert. The first part in reality is an exercise in historical anti-McCarthyism. The subject is Tsein Hue-shen, a top Cal Tech aeronautical scientist, key adviser to the Air Force during and after World War II, and a recipient of various government service awards. In 1950 Tsein fell under suspicion due to his close associations with some members of the Communist Party’s Cal Tech Unit 122. His eventual deportation from the U.S. meant that the Chinese Communists were gaining an acknowledged scientific genius. The authors of The China Cloud would have us conclude that U.S. concern with Communist infiltration led to the “astounding speed” with which China acquired a thermonuclear capability; but their chain of reasoning fails to hold water. If the story proves anything, it is only that most scientists tend to be incredibly naïve about politics and that most government bureaucrats are incredibly naïve about the dangers in deporting men such as Tsein.