logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2023
54m 20s

Behind the Bamboo Curtain | CIA

SPYSCAPE
About this episode

When two CIA officers were captured in an ambush on Chinese territory, it seemed as though their story was over. In fact, their ordeal had only just begun. Two decades later, their fates still hung in the balance between the power-players of Beijing and Washington.

Professor John Delury, a historian of China and US-China affairs, joins Sophia Di Martino to discuss one of the great forgotten stories of the Cold War. A tale of resilience, complex political gamesmanship, and the transforming power of a mother's love.

From SPYSCAPE, the home of secrets. A Cup And Nuzzle production. Series producers: Gemma Newby, Joe Foley. Produced by Frank Palmer. Music by Nick Ryan.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Up next
Oct 6
Chasing Chi, Part Two: One Man's Trash... | FBI
By 2004, FBI Special Agent Jim Gaylord has seen a lot of counterintelligence operations go right. But he's also seen plenty go wrong, especially when it comes to the People's Republic of China. But now, he has a chance to take down one of China's most prolific collectors of US mi ... Show More
40m 59s
Oct 1
True Spies - Brief Histories: Women in Espionage
NEW from True Spies: Brief Histories. From 7th Century China to Nazi-occupied France, discover a selection of stories from the long history of female spies. In Brief Histories, the new monthly special from True Spies, series producer Joe Foley is your guide to this secret world - ... Show More
28m 12s
Sep 30
Chasing Chi, Part One: The Engineer | FBI
By 2004, FBI Special Agent Jim Gaylord has seen a lot of counterintelligence operations go right. But he's also seen plenty go wrong, especially when it comes to the People's Republic of China. But now, he has a chance to take down one of China's most prolific collectors of US mi ... Show More
44m 38s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2021
The Boiling Frog
At the peak of his career, Jack Devine was one of the world's top spymasters. But everybody starts somewhere. Vanessa Kirby follows Jack to Chile on his first overseas assignment. It's 1971, and the CIA is determined to undermine the country's socialist government. But as a milit ... Show More
42m 27s
Oct 2021
How To Make Friends and Stage Coups
Damascus, 1949. A plot to bring down the Syrian government is brewing. Stewart Copeland voices the jazz musician, raconteur, and CIA agent pulling the strings - his father Miles Copeland. Vanessa Kirby tells his story - a tale of double agents, dangerous friendships and shoot-out ... Show More
45m 36s
Feb 2024
The Headhunting Burmese Tribe Running the World's Biggest Cartel: The Wa w/ Patrick Winn
The Wa tribe, an indigenous tribe residing in the mountainous Burma China borderlands, has long had a reputation as a people not to be trifled with. And yes, they were actually headhunters, well into the 20th century. Known as powerful warriors who weren't keen on outsiders telli ... Show More
1h 3m
Apr 2021
American Espionage Was Born in the Dark Taverns of Philadelphia
Philadelphia is often referred to as the birthplace of a nation, but it would also be fair to say that it was the birthplace of American espionage. Today’s guests, Keith Melton and Robert Wallace, author of Spy Sites of Philadelphia, discuss the city’s secret history from the nat ... Show More
37m 9s
Oct 2021
The Sociopathic Spy
Location - unknown. Time period - classified. Hero? You decide. Jim Lawler is one of the CIA's most successful recruiters of foreign spies. But even he had to start somewhere. Vanessa Kirby joins Jim on his first foreign posting. His mission? To enlist a crucial intelligence asse ... Show More
46m 55s
Mar 2021
The Tang Dynasty
Greg Jenner is joined by historian Prof Tineke D’Haeseleer and comedian Evelyn Mok in medieval China to explore the Tang Dynasty. Known as the Golden Age of China, it was the time of China’s Emperor Wu, the only woman to hold power in her own right, and Emperor Xuanzong who becam ... Show More
52m 4s
Mar 2021
The Cassandra part 2
This is part 2 of Frank Snepp's story. Snepp was a CIA analyst based in Saigon during the Vietnam War. In April of 1975, he discovered that Communist forces were preparing a large-scale attack on Saigon—but the higher ups refused to believe it. When the attack began later that mo ... Show More
26m 14s