Oliver E. Clubb, Jr. was an American who was associated with Soviet diplomacy during the middle years of the 20th Century. As a result, this placed Clubb into at least two different circles -- one a social circle with John Kenneth Galbraith. The other circle was with Joseph McCarthy, but THIS circle resembled more of a "McCarthyism" target on Clubb's back. Oliver Clubb's social circle with Galbraith was friendly, even to the point of Galbraith inscribing one his books, The Triumph, to "The Clubbs," meant to include Mrs. Clubb. Unfortunately for Mr. Clubb, Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's connection with Clubb wasn't anywhere as friendly or cordial.

Oliver E. Clubb was a major target of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's investigation of supposedly disloyal Americans in the State Department in the early 1950's.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF OLIVER E. CLUBB

Oliver E. Clubb was a United States Foreign Service officer from 1928 to 1952. He served in China (1929-43 and 1946-50), including duty as Consul General in Mukden, Manchuria in 1946; Consul General, Harbin, also in 1946; Consul General, Changchun, 1946-47; and Peiping, 1947-50. He also served as Consul General, Vladivostok, U.S.S.R., 1944-46 and as Director, Office of Chinese Affairs, Dept. of State, 1950-51.

An author himself, Clubb wrote The United States and the Sino-Soviet Bloc in Southeast Asia, in 1962.

Some of his other writings include:

CLUBB, O[LIVER] EDMUND. China & Russia: The Great Game.
New York, Columbia University Press, 1971, Hard Cover. 578 pages, 8 plates, 10 maps, cloth. The author served twenty years in the U.S. Foreign Service holding posts in China and the Soviet Union and was Director of the Office of Chinese Affairs at the State Dept. (1950-52). Well balanced account of Sino-Soviet relations from the 15th century to the present.

CLUBB, O[LIVER] EDMUND. 20th-Century China. (First Edition.)
New York, Columbia University Press, 1964, Hard Cover. 470 pages, 4 plates, 4 maps, cloth. From the publisher: "One of the great needs today is for a clear picture of the history of China in the 20th century. Mr. Clubb's book is a political history of China from the dynastic era to the present Communist period. It deals with domestic developments as well as with foreign relations -- especially American, Japanese, and Russian -- wherever they have an important bearing on domestic evolution."

CLUBB, O. EDMUND. 20th-Century China. (Second edition.)
New York, Columbia University Press, 1972, Hard Cover. 528 pages, 5 plates, cloth.

In excerpts from An Oral History Interview with O. Edmund Clubb from a tape-recorded interview conducted for the Harry S. Truman Library, Mr. Clubb related a few interesting stories, including "McCarthyism," as follows: (The interview was conducted in New York on June 26, 1974, by Richard D. McKinzie.)

"I remember a Soviet major, who said that the war with Japan would soon be over, but there would be more wars to come. And he said that for one thing the Soviet Union was going to return to Manchuria, it was going to get back Port Arthur and the Chinese Eastern Railway and Karafuto, that is, Southern Sakhalin, which had been ceded to Japan long before. Now, these were the provisions of the Yalta Pact. He knew about it, but I didn't know it. And, of course, Hurley didn't know it in China. There was another general aboard, and he speaking on a different occasion said that there should be no more wars, saying that mankind had had enough of war, and the time had come for universal peace. So you had these two military points of view, held by the major and the general. Well, of course, we are still discussing that subject, and President Nixon will be discussing it in Moscow this week.

"In 1948 I took home leave and saw the beginnings of some of these developments. But, I had no full appreciation. There wasn't, if you will, "McCarthyism" yet. McCarthy hadn't yet made his famous speech.

"There was at the same time the continuation of the political and economic deterioration in China, particularly in Manchuria, but now also in North China too. It was in 1948, you will remember, that Manchuria was lost to the Communists. The loss of Manchuria was more than a loss of territory, it was a loss actually of four hundred thousand troops and all their equipment. It was thus a serious loss of the power of the military establishment. The loss likewise resulted in a severe political shock, rather naturally.

"The Chinese presumably were content. And by that time, by my theory, they were embarked, by reason of the agreement at Moscow, on the Korean venture. We didn't know that at the time, but there were signs of impending trouble, and so they were committed to the 'one side.' All right, that was Mao's leaning to one side policy. Subsequent to that, Mao decided he would lean a little bit away from that side and toward another side, but he's doing it again for profit.

"I was in the midst of what I thought was a well-earned vacation [in Switzerland, where Galbraith often went to write and vacation] when the Korean war began. But I cut that vacation short, went to the Department immediately, and took up my post there at the beginning of July instead of finishing my vacation. And so that was the end of my China experience as a U.S. Foreign Service officer."

Mr. Clubb's Obituary [Excerpted] from The New York Times, Thursday, May 11, 1989:

"O. Edmund Clubb Is Dead at 88; China Hand and McCarthy Target"

"O. Edmund Clubb, a United States Foreign Service officer who became a major target of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's investigation of supposedly disloyal Americans in the State Department in the early 1950's, died of Parkinson's disease Tuesday at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. He was 88 years old and lived in Manhattan and in Palenville, N.Y.

"Mr. Clubb served for more than two decades in the Foreign Service. He was the last American diplomat stationed in Beijing after the Communist takeover in 1949, and it fell upon him, as Consul General , to haul down the flag there in April 1950. Returned to Washington, he was named chief of the China desk at the State Department, only to be suspended a year later as a security risk.

"One of his many character witnesses, an army colonel, wrote of him, 'I always thought you were secure to the point of being boring.' He was nevertheless condemned by a loyalty board. Cleared on appeal, but assigned to an obscure job, he concluded that his career was finished and submitted his resignation.

"Those Who 'Lost China'

"Mr. Clubb, along with other Government officials, was stigmatized as having 'lost China.' Unlike the others so treated, he had not been involved in the wartime dispute over policy toward Chiang Kai-shek. Mr. Clubb's misfortune came long before, in a brief encounter with Whittaker Chambers in 1932. [Whittaker Chambers, a veteran Soviet spy who became, in William F. Buckley Jr.'s words, "the most important American defector from Communism," wrote in 1952 the book titled  Witness, Random House, ISBN 0-89526-571-0. He is best known for his testimony about the perjury and espionage of Alger Hiss.]

"Home on leave that year, Mr. Clubb carried letters of introduction, one of them from Agnes Smedley, a well-known left-wing journalist in China, to an editor of New Masses, a Communist magazine in New York.

"The editor was no longer there, but Mr. Chambers was. Mr. Clubb's diary entry for that day in 1932 told of a visit to 'a horrible rag' and an encounter with 'one Wittaker Chambers, a shifty-eyed unkempt creature.'

"The young diplomat wrote that he was unable to show 'revolutionary enthusiasm' because "' was out of my bailiwick -- masquerading under false pretenses.'

"When investigators questioned the authenticity of the diary, Mr. Clubb gave it to his superiors, on their pledge to protect his privacy. The contents nevertheless leaked, and the diary circulated among several Government agencies, Mr. Chambers was by then a fervent anti-Communist who had become the accuser of Alger Hiss.

"Mr. Clubb was not permitted to confront his accusers or to learn what they had alleged except by inference from questions put to him. He thus inferred that a consular official with whom he had had some friction had accused him of being 'pink' during the 1930's.

"In 1932, Mr. Clubb had reported form China that the Communists were strong and popular in the regions they controlled and that the Nationalists were corrupt but that they might force the Communists to flee to the west. His prediction foreshadowed the Long March, and was later to be cited by his critics as evidence of his pro-Communist leanings.

"Suspension Is Lifted

"In the climate of the Korean War and Senator McCarthy's attacks on the State Department, his reports were viewed as disloyal. The careers of most of the 'China hands' suffered, and four of them, including Mr. Clubb, were dismissed or resigned under a cloud.

He appealed the findings of a State Department loyalty board. It was brought out that the case against him rested entirely on the suspicion that he had lied about his visit to New Masses and that he had doctored his diaries. He was upheld on both counts, and his suspension was lifted on Feb. 7, 1952.

"Mr. Clubb was not restored to the China desk but was transferred to the division of historical research, with no work assignment. He resigned five days later.

"In a 1975 book recalling this experience, "The Witness and I," Mr. Clubb wrote, "'I felt that the Government of which I had long been a part had been disloyal to me.'

"Son of a Cattleman

"Oliver Edmund Clubb was born on Feb. 16, 1901, in South Park, Minn., the son of a cattle raiser. During World War I he enlisted in the Army at age 17, later working his way through college, first at the University of Washing, then at the University of Minnesota.

"He had majored in international law, but had been fascinated by some courses on China. In 1928, he qualified for the Foreign Service and was sent the next year to Beijing.

"Two days before Pearl Harbor, Mr. Clubb, then in Indochina, was seized by occupying Japanese forces and was held for two months in solitary confinement and six months more with other internees, then exchanged for Japanese held by the Allies.

"With the exception of a brief period in Washington, Mr. Clubb spent the rest of the war and the immediate postwar period in the Soviet Far East, Manchuria, and China."

Now some biographical data about McCarthy:

Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period of intense anti-communist suspicion inspired by the tensions of the Cold War.

He was noted for making claims that there were large numbers of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers inside the federal government and elsewhere. Ultimately, McCarthy's tactics and his inability to substantiate his claims led to his being discredited and censured by the United States Senate.

The term McCarthyism, coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist pursuits. Today the term is used more generally to describe demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.

But in the 1950s. many thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private-industry panels, committees and agencies. The primary targets of such suspicions were government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators, and union activists.

Suspicions were often given credence despite inconclusive or questionable evidence, and the level of threat posed by a person's real or supposed leftist associations or beliefs was often greatly exaggerated. Many people suffered loss of employment, destruction of their careers, and even imprisonment. Most of these punishments came about through trial verdicts later overturned, laws that would be declared unconstitutional, dismissals for reasons later declared illegal or actionable, or extra-legal procedures that would come into general disrepute.

The most famous examples of McCarthyism include the Hollywood blacklist and the investigations and hearings conducted by Joseph McCarthy. It was a widespread social and cultural phenomenon that affected all levels of society and was the source of a great deal of debate and conflict in the United States.

Born and raised on a Wisconsin farm, McCarthy earned a law degree at Marquette University in 1935 and was elected as a circuit judge in 1939, the youngest in state history. At age 33, McCarthy volunteered for the United States Marine Corps and served during World War II.

He successfully ran for the United States Senate in 1946, defeating Robert M. La Follette, Jr. After several largely undistinguished years in the Senate, McCarthy rose suddenly to national fame in 1950 when he asserted in a speech that he had a list of "members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring" who were employed in the State Department.

McCarthyism was supported by a variety of groups, including the American Legion, Christian fundamentalists, and various other anti-communist organizations. One core element of support was a variety of militantly anti-communist women's groups such as the American Public Relations Forum and the Minute Women of the U.S.A.. These organized tens of thousands of housewives into study groups, letter-writing networks, and patriotic clubs that coordinated efforts to identify and eradicate subversion.

However, McCarthy was never able to substantiate his sensational charges. In succeeding years, McCarthy made accusations of Communist infiltration into the State Department, the administration of President Truman, Voice of America, and the United States Army.

He also used charges of communism, communist sympathies, or disloyalty to attack a number of politicians and other individuals inside and outside of government. With the highly publicized Army-McCarthy hearings of 1954, McCarthy's support and popularity began to fade.

Later in 1954, the Senate voted to censure Senator McCarthy by a vote of 67 to 22, making him one of the few senators ever to be disciplined in this fashion. McCarthy died in Bethesda Naval Hospital on May 2, 1957, at the age of 48. The official cause of death was acute hepatitis; it is widely accepted that this was brought on by alcoholism.

This guide was assembled by booksuncommon.  Any errors are mine. For those I apologize.