Prisoner of Lies

Jack Downey's Cold War

By: Barry Werth

Narrated by: Stephen Graybill

The remarkable true story of the longest-held prisoner of war in American history, John Downey, Jr., a CIA officer captured in China during the Korean War and imprisoned for twenty-one years.

John (Jack) Downey, Jr., was a new Yale graduate in the post-World War II years who, like other Yale grads, was recruited by the young CIA. He joined the Agency and was sent to Japan in 1952, during the Korean War. In a violation of protocol, he took part in an air drop that failed and was captured over China. His sources on the ground had been compromised, and his identity was known. Although he first tried to deny who he was, he eventually admitted the truth.

But government policy forbade ever acknowledging the identity of spies, no matter the consequences. Washington invented a fictitious cover story and stood by it through four Administrations. As a result, Downey was imprisoned during the decades that Red China, as it was called, was considered by the US to be a hostile nation, until 1973, when the US finally recognized the mainland Chinese government. He had spent twenty-one years in captivity.

Downey would go on to become a lawyer and an esteemed judge in Connecticut, his home state. Prisoners of Lies is based in part on a prison memoir that Downey wrote several years after his release. Barry Werth fluently weaves excerpts from the memoir with the Cold War events that determined Downey’s fate. Like a le Carré novel, this is a harrowing, chilling story of one man whose life is at the mercy of larger forces outside of his control; in Downey’s case as a pawn of the Cold War, and more specifically the Oval Office and the State Department. His freedom came only when US foreign policy dramatically changed. Above all, Prisoner of Lies is an inspiring story of remarkable fortitude and resilience.

©2024 Barry Werth (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

A Cold War Saga

John Downey is a little-known, unsung hero of the Cold War. Shot down during a covert CIA mission over Manchuria in 1952, he remained in Communist Chinese prisons for more than 20 years. He survived with courage, discipline and grace. According to this saga, Downey remained humble and likeable throughout his imprisonment. The book presents a full life, from a childhood at private schools and Yale to the CIA and Chinese prison to a low-key life following release in his native Connecticut, ultimately serving as a family court judge.

The book includes a lot of collateral history that’s fascinating, including digressions into the Dulles brothers, Allen and John Foster (perhaps the villains of the tale), who ran US foreign policy in the 1950s; Downey’s cousins Morton Downey, a popular singer of the 1930s, and his son Morton Jr., an early right-wing television provocateur; the Watergate hearings, and the development of Connecticut’s laws on termination of parental rights. While some of this seemed like filler, it was always interesting.

The narrator read like a newscaster, direct and businesslike. However, he often mispronounced Connecticut names, like that of former Governor Meskill and the Hartford Courant newspaper. It should be easy to find out these things before the narrator starts.

Overall, “Prisoner of Lies” offers a surprisingly interesting look at a troubled era in American history.

The Jack I knew

I am an attorney and a New Havener. I knew Jack as a friend and colleague. I grew up with Jack Keyes. The stories to me are very personal.