Mis-X Top Secret

Rating:
Summary: a valuable resource for any student of world war II history
Review: A story that has never been told. It is written by the man who lived it. His insight into the history of the U.S. intelligence division that handled the rescues in China is incredibly accurate and revealing. This is a story that needed to be told.

Rating:
Summary: Insight into Highly Classified Obscurity
Review: This is the book I have been waiting for for seven years. If it sounds like high praise it's meant to be. I have been trying to sort out the intelligence and clandestine operations in the CBI Theatre for years. The outline has been clear for Burma but the situation in China was obscured not only by the necessity for secrecy but also by the overlapping and disputatious command setup and the rivalry between General Stillwell and his factions, and General Chennault and his. Now we have a new work of organizational history "OSS In China" (cf) to add to the personal memoirs of the major participants and others. When the U.S. Army official "Green Books" were published so long ago, any mention of intelligence was very limited and most of the sources were then in the hands of the CIA---there were no official documentary sources.I have about 2000 pages from the archives and they still do not tell it all. And there were no official books on intelligence either. Now we have a new GPO book on WW II Air Intelligence with many pages on the Far East and an Air University book on Air Force clandestine activities from WW II to the second Vietnam War to give us more leads into this story and its consequences. But, back to the book at hand. Wichtrich was the commander of the MIS-X agency in Kunming, China, which was in charge of establishing "ratlines" and giving E & E training to U.S. personnel in China. In China most were Fourteenth Air Force personnel assigned to Gen. Chennault at Kunming. In China, if a downed airman was not immediately captured by the Japanese or their puppets, he would be immediately hidden away by the locals until U.S. personnel could come and get him. There were many safe havens between and behind the Japanese lines and it was sometimes possible to take a train, a plane, or a jeep, and not have to hoof it halfway across China to get back. As an E & E agency, Wichtrich's outfit's cover name was Air Ground Aid Section (AGAS). AGAS was not involved in active sabotage or intelligence activities but if intelligence could be had it would be brought in. As to the relationships with other agencies in the area, the closest was with the "big brother"--the British MIS-9. There was little with the OSS which was in Chungking and which cooperated with the Koumintang Secret Police under Gen Dai Li, and much with the AGRFRTS, the 14th Air Force intelligence agency. The AGAS also ran agents in Indochina, including Ho Chi Minh, in cooperation with the BDT group. (cf Ronald Spector's official U.S. Army history concerning the early advisory days.) For the higher relationships of AGAS to its parent at Fort Hunt, Va, see my review of Shoemaker's The Escape Factory on this site.

Rating:
Summary: Insight into Highly Classified Obscurity
Review: This is the book I have been waiting for for seven years. If it sounds like high praise it's meant to be. I have been trying to sort out the intelligence and clandestine operations in the CBI Theatre for years. The outline has been clear for Burma but the situation in China was obscured not only by the necessity for secrecy but also by the overlapping and disputatious command setup and the rivalry between General Stillwell and his factions, and General Chennault and his. Now we have a new work of organizational history "OSS In China" (cf) to add to the personal memoirs of the major participants and others. When the U.S. Army official "Green Books" were published so long ago, any mention of intelligence was very limited and most of the sources were then in the hands of the CIA---there were no official documentary sources.I have about 2000 pages from the archives and they still do not tell it all. And there were no official books on intelligence either. Now we have a new GPO book on WW II Air Intelligence with many pages on the Far East and an Air University book on Air Force clandestine activities from WW II to the second Vietnam War to give us more leads into this story and its consequences. But, back to the book at hand. Wichtrich was the commander of the MIS-X agency in Kunming, China, which was in charge of establishing "ratlines" and giving E & E training to U.S. personnel in China. In China most were Fourteenth Air Force personnel assigned to Gen. Chennault at Kunming. In China, if a downed airman was not immediately captured by the Japanese or their puppets, he would be immediately hidden away by the locals until U.S. personnel could come and get him. There were many safe havens between and behind the Japanese lines and it was sometimes possible to take a train, a plane, or a jeep, and not have to hoof it halfway across China to get back. As an E & E agency, Wichtrich's outfit's cover name was Air Ground Aid Section (AGAS). AGAS was not involved in active sabotage or intelligence activities but if intelligence could be had it would be brought in. As to the relationships with other agencies in the area, the closest was with the "big brother"--the British MIS-9. There was little with the OSS which was in Chungking and which cooperated with the Koumintang Secret Police under Gen Dai Li, and much with the AGRFRTS, the 14th Air Force intelligence agency. The AGAS also ran agents in Indochina, including Ho Chi Minh, in cooperation with the BDT group. (cf Ronald Spector's official U.S. Army history concerning the early advisory days.) For the higher relationships of AGAS to its parent at Fort Hunt, Va, see my review of Shoemaker's The Escape Factory on this site.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book
Review: This is the type of book that should be in schools it show's the way life was not the way history showed it. This was written by a man that lived it.