Richard Fecteau
{{Short description|CIA agent held prisoner in China 1952-1971}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Richard G. Fecteau
| image = Richard Fecteau.jpg
| image_upright = 1.2
| caption = Fecteau at CIA headquarters in 2013
| other_names =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1927}}
| birth_place = Lynn, Massachusetts, U.S.
| death_date =
| death_place =
| education =
| alma_mater = Boston University
| occupation = CIA officer (1949–1971)
| known_for = 19 years as a POW in China
| awards = Exceptional Service Medallion
Distinguished Intelligence Medal
CIA Director's Medal
Distinguished Intelligence Cross
}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=May 2020}}
Richard G. Fecteau (born 1927){{cite news |url=http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-new-britain-cia-ambushed-in-china-20100619,0,2171778.story |title=CIA Operative From New Britain Had Role In Failed Cold War Spy Mission In China |work=Hartford Courant |date=2010-06-19 |accessdate=2013-12-12 |last=Burns |first=Robert |agency=Associated Press |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020041300/http://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-new-britain-cia-ambushed-in-china-20100619%2C0%2C7029400%2Cfull.story |archivedate=2012-10-20}} is an American Central Intelligence Agency operative who was captured by the People's Republic of China during a CIA-sponsored flight in the Korean War. News of the capture of Fecteau and John T. Downey reached the United States in November 1954, sparking a nearly two decade battle of wills between the U.S. and the PRC. Fecteau was released in December 1971.{{cite magazine |url=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2014/11/john-t-downey-cia-agent-captured-by-china-during-the-korean-war-the-story-of-the-longest-held-american-pow.html |title="Your Future Is Very Dark" - The incredible story of former CIA agent John T. Downey, the longest held American captive of war |first=Andrew |last=Burt |date=2014-11-19 |magazine=Slate}} He later worked as an assistant athletic director at his alma mater, Boston University, retiring in 1989.
CIA career
He joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) soon after Boston University and became one of two CIA Paramilitary Officers in Special Activities Division (the other was John T. Downey, a Yale graduate) who survived the shoot-down of their Civil Air Transport C-47 spy-collection mission over the People's Republic of China in November 1952. In December 1954 Radio Peking announced that Fecteau and Downey had been convicted of spying and were sentenced to 20 years and life imprisonment respectively.{{cite web|url=https://time.com/archive/6885614/foreign-relations-u-s-prisoners-in-china/|title=Foreign Relations: U.S. prisoners in China|publisher=Time Magazine|date=6 December 1954|access-date=13 February 2025}}
Due to improving U.S.-China relations, Fecteau and Mary Ann Harbert, who was captured on a yacht in Chinese waters near Hong Kong in April 1968, were released on 13 December 1971, crossing the land border into Hong Kong where they were received by U.S. consular officials. Harbert and Fecteau were flown by helicopter to Kai Tak Airport and then boarded a United States Air Force aeromedical evacuation jet and flown to Clark Air Base, Hawaii and then on to McGuire Air Force Base.{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Americans Are Sped to U.S.|author=Tillman Durdin|date=14 December 1971|page=6}}{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Advances amaze freed Americans|date=15 December 1971|page=3}}
Harbert and Fecteau were taken to Valley Forge Military Hospital for medical evaluation. Fecteau was reported to be having difficulty adjusting to his release, being uncommunicative after having spent most of the preceding 19 years in solitary confinement.
Throughout his captivity the U.S. had denied that he was a CIA agent. On hearing news of his release, his ex-wife Margaret (who had divorced him in 1951) stated that "the Chinese haven't been lying" about him being a CIA agent, but she recanted the statement the next day.{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Fecteau ex-wife hints he was spy|date=14 December 1971|page=7}} However U.S. officials disclosed privately that they no longer denied the Chinese charges that he was a spy.{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|title=No longer deny the charges|date=15 December 1971|page=3}} In a press conference on 15 December he said that he had never given up hope of release, but had got so used to solitary confinement that he was unused to speaking, when asked if he was a CIA agent he replied "no comment."{{cite news|newspaper=The New York Times|title=Never lost hope, Fecteau asserts|date=16 December 1971|page=3}}
In an official statement made by Xinhua News Agency at the time of his release, the Chinese government said that Fecteau was a CIA spy but that given that he had admitted his crimes during trial and his behavior was not bad in accordance with the proletarian policy of leniency he was being released prior to the end of his 20-year sentence.{{cite journal|journal=Daily Report, Foreign Radio Broadcasts|publisher=Central Intelligence Agency|title=Sentences commuted, reduced for American Prisoners in PRC|date=13 December 1971|page=A1}}
In 2013, the CIA awarded Fecteau the Distinguished Intelligence Cross.{{cite news |title=Cold War arrest of US spies offers lesson for Iran diplomacy |url=http://america.aljazeera.com/opinions/2013/12/cia-prisoners-downeyfecteauchinairandiplomacy.html |accessdate=2013-12-30 |work=Al Jazeera America |date=December 28, 2013 |first=Stephen |last=Kinzer |author-link=Stephen Kinzer}} The CIA's Studies in Intelligence, vol. 50, no. 4, 2006 included an article describing the mission, the capture, and, ultimately, the release of agents Downey and Fecteau.{{cite journal |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol50no4/two-cia-prisoners-in-china-1952201373.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070613045611/https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol50no4/two-cia-prisoners-in-china-1952201373.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 13, 2007 |title=Two CIA Prisoners in China, 1952–73 |first=Dujmovic |last=Nicholas |journal=Studies in Intelligence |year=2006 |volume=50 |issue=4 |publisher=CIA}} A related video documentary was placed on the CIA website.{{cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0Mh7EiXRJI |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211215/Z0Mh7EiXRJI |archive-date=2021-12-15 |url-status=live|title=Extraordinary Fidelity |date=April 5, 2007 |publisher=CIA |website=YouTube}}{{cbignore}}{{cite web |url=https://www.cia.gov/library/video-center/video-transcripts/extraordinary-fidelity.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130816085420/https://www.cia.gov/library/video-center/video-transcripts/extraordinary-fidelity.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 16, 2013 |title=Extraordinary Fidelity (transcript) |date=June 5, 2013 |publisher=CIA |website=cia.gov}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.cia.gov/resources/csi/studies-in-intelligence/volume-50-no-4/two-cia-prisoners-in-china-1952-73/ Two CIA Prisoners in China, 1952–73]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fecteau, Richard}}
Category:American people convicted of spying for the United States
Category:American people imprisoned in China
Category:CIA agents convicted of crimes
Category:Boston University Terriers football players
Category:People from Lynn, Massachusetts
Category:Foreign nationals imprisoned in the People's Republic of China