World Affairs Council
of Orange County
presents
John Kenneth Knaus
Associate at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard
"U.S. Government’s Involvement in Tibetan Affairs Over the Past Century"
This event is sponsored by Dr. Giles Brown
John Kenneth Knaus served in the U.S. Army 1943-1945 where he was trained as a Chinese Interpreter. He is a graduate of Stanford University and obtained an M.A. degree in Political Science in 1948 from Stanford and was completing a Ph.D. from there when he was recalled to active duty as a Second Lieutenant in the Military Intelligence Corps in 1951. He was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency that year and served as an analyst on the Agency’s Indications Staff for four years until he was appointed Policy Officer on China Affairs by the U.S. Information Agency from 1955 until 1958 when he returned to CIA, this time as an operations officer in the Directorate of Operations. He served in India, Japan, and Canada and intermittently at Headquarters in Langley conducting political action operations in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East from 1958 until 1993 when he was appointed CIA Officer in Residence at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Following his retirement from the Agency in 1995 he was appointed an Associate at the Fairbank Center for East Asian Research at Harvard’s Asia Center where he is still actively engaged in conducting colloquiums concerning U.S. relations with Tibet, a subject on which he contributes articles to professional; journals and the U.S. and foreign press.
In 1999 Public Affairs Press published his book Orphans of the Cold War America and the Tibetan Struggle for Survival which is a chronicle of the CIA support for the Tibetan Resistance effort from 1958 until 1974 in which he played an active role as Director of the Tibetan Task Force at Langley and in the field in India. He is completing another book, A Sometimes Ally Tibet’s American Legacy, 1908-2008 which records the involvement by the U.S. Government, particularly the U.S. Congress who took up this support after CIA withdrew, and also that of the American public.
He and his wife reside in Chevy Chase Maryland from where he commutes to Cambridge. They are the parent of three children and three grandchildren.
Date: Thursday, March 26, 2009
Location: Hyatt Regency Irvine
17900 Jamboree Blvd., Irvine, Ca. 92614
6:00 pm Reception * 7:00 pm Dinner * 7:45 pm Program
Members @ $55 Non-Members @ $70 Students @ $38
