Murdered by Communists- Americas Forgotten Martyr

August 25, 1945. World War II is over, but for one American officer in China, the most dangerous day of his life is just beginning. Captain John Birch, missionary turned spy, stands on a dusty railway platform surrounded by armed Chinese communist soldiers. He refuses to surrender his sidearm. Moments later, he's shot, beaten, bound, and executed with a single round to the back of the head. His body is dumped in a ditch. The U.S. government will lie about what happened, telling his parents it was an accident. The truth will stay buried for years, until his name is resurrected by one of the most controversial political movements in American history. Who was John Birch? What was his mission? What did he accomplish? What was the end result? Hello, I'm Colin Heaton, former history professor, Army and Marine Corps veteran, and welcome to this episode of Forgotten History. John Morrison Birch was the oldest of seven children, born on May 28, 1918, to Presbyterian missionaries Ethel and George S. Birch in Landauer in the Himalayan mountains, which is now part of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. John was the oldest of seven children, and his parents were college graduates who volunteered for a three-year missionary service tour working under Sam Higginbottom. When George Birch contracted malaria, the family left India in 1920 and returned to the United States. Birch told his parents that he had entertained the thought of becoming a missionary when he was 11 years old. John graduated valedictorian from Gore High School in Chattooga County, Georgia. He enrolled at Georgia Baptist-affiliated Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. One classmate stated, he was always an angry young man, always a zealot. He felt he was called to defend the faith, and he alone knew what it was. In his senior year, Birch joined a group of students who opposed the introduction of liberal policies into the university, and charges of heresy were brought against some of the professors. One controversy was teaching the theory of evolution as opposed to biblical creation theory, and a day-long hearing was held in the university chapel. Defenders of the professors posted a sign on the door, Do Not Enter Spanish Inquisition in Progress. The charges against the professors were later dismissed, but Birch and his group became very unpopular on campus, and he later admitted to regretting the incident. Despite the tension with the faculty, he graduated in 1939 magna cum laude with the highest grade point average in his class. After graduating from Mercer, he enrolled in J. Frank Norris' Fundamental Baptist Bible Institute in Fort Worth, Texas. Norris himself had visited Shanghai in 1939, two years after the brutal Japanese invasion, which started the Second Sino-Japanese War, and he saw great opportunities to spread the gospel. Birch completed the required two-year curriculum in only one year, and again graduated at the head of his class in June 1940. He was eager to join Norris' World Fundamental Baptist Missionary Fellowship to go on the Shanghai mission. Birch joined about 150 members of the who gathered to leave for China. Norris said they went, quote, fully informed as to the dangers that await them, but they'd go like the Apostle Paul when he knew that it meant death at Jerusalem. Birch left his family saying, goodbye folks, if we don't meet again on earth, we'll meet in heaven. Birch's group arrived in Japanese-occupied Shanghai in July 1940, and Americans were treated as neutral citizens, which gave them freedom to move around. Birch began an intensive period of study learning Mandarin Chinese. A few months later, he was assigned to Hangzhou Province, occupied by the Japanese. Birch left Hangzhou in October 1941, taking a dangerous foot trip, where his small group managed to avoid both Chinese bandits and Japanese soldiers firing small arms as the area was contested. Despite having endured malaria and dengue fever, he arrived to run a mission station in Shangri-La in northwest Jingxi Province. In a letter, Birch reassured his parents that despite his illnesses that had knocked him down a bit, he was coming back up, eating a diet of rice and vegetables with Chinese peasants. Birch became proficient in Mandarin Chinese and preached sermons in that language. But Birch had seen many atrocities committed against the Chinese civilians by the Japanese, and he kept a detailed diary, which would be very incriminating after the war. Meanwhile, his health was not getting better due to the low-calorie diet and lack of medicines for his illnesses. But when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the Philippines, and other U.S. locations in the Pacific in December 1941, he started to doubt the mission bureaucrats, who soured him on organized religion. In addition, the missionary board failed to supply their workers with any food or medical aid, and nothing had been received since the previous November. Birch had seen enough, and on April 13, 1942, he wrote to the American military mission in China, saying that for both patriotic and practical reasons, he wanted to join the army. He explained that he had been preaching behind Japanese lines for more than a year, but was finding it increasingly hard to do so on an empty stomach. He wanted to be a chaplain, but would cheerfully tote a rifle or whatever they tell me to do. Birch's life and fortunes changed when Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle and his flight crew bailed out over China after bombing Tokyo on April 18, 1942. Doolittle's B-25 Mitchell bomber was the first of 16 B-25s launched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet during their one-way flight. Doolittle and his four crew members bailed out over southeastern China in mountainous terrain as planned. The crew were rescued by Chinese civilians, led by Birch, and smuggled safely out of Japanese lines. When Doolittle arrived in Chongqing, he informed Colonel Clare Chenault, commanding the 1st American Volunteer Group, or AVG, known as the Flying Tigers, about Birch's life-saving help. Chenault then recruited Birch as his Chinese-speaking American intelligence operative because he knew the country well, and he had the respect and loyalty of the people. Birch was commissioned as a United States Army Air Force's intelligence officer, as opposed to a chaplain, with the rank of second lieutenant on July 5, 1942. He still held Sunday church services for the Chinese Christians. Birch was a wealth of information, and he established intelligence networks of local Chinese, supplying Chenault with information on Japanese troop movements, strengths, and logistics to include overland and even coastal shipping of troops and supplies. Birch's effectiveness was noticed by Brigadier General William Wild Bill Donovan, head of the Office of Strategic Services, after Birch managed to have two airfields built, enabling supply aircraft and American bombers to operate, as well as creating a solid network of scouts and watchers who were very successful in rescuing downed American pilots, saving them from the Japanese. For these efforts, he received the Legion of Merit from Chenault on July 17, 1944. Birch also gave regular reports on the troops commanded by both the Nationalist Chinese leader General Chiang Kai-shek, as well as the Communist leader Mao Zedong. He was asked for assessments from his firsthand experience dealing with both groups while posing as a missionary. See our videos on both Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong. Meanwhile, his health grew worse, and Chenault told him to take a leave of absence, as his network was running well and could spare him for a few months. More OSS agents had been brought in and could run the operations, but Birch refused, telling Chenault that he would not quit China until the last Japanese did. In his official and private reports, he stated that he found the Nationalist government under Chiang relatively small and unrepresentative, and with its abuses, intolerance, and impotence, it never had the popular support needed to build a strong nation. But Birch did report that Chiang Kai-shek deserved praise for his steadfastness of purpose in fighting the war. The Communists, on the other hand, were equally small, an unrepresentative group, whose leaders I consider hypocritical thugs, who he blamed for their lack of patriotism, but he praised them for their endurance and ingenuity in fighting the Japanese. The problem was that Birch sometimes found himself as a mediator between the Nationalists and Communists, who were just as ready to kill each other as they were the Japanese. Birch also warned Chenault that the airfields needed troops for security, but Chenault disagreed. General Stilwell agreed with Birch's assessment, and later Birch was proven correct. In 1944, the Japanese launched Operation Ichigo, their counter-offensive, sending 500,000 men and 800 tanks, supplied by up to 100,000 horses dragging wagons, and 12,000 to 15,000 other vehicles. They overran the airbases. Stilwell served as the U.S. commander in the China-Burma-India theater and was responsible for all Lend-Lease supplies going into China. He had to determine who received food and ammunition between Mao and Chiang, as both were supposed to provide soldiers supporting the American and British efforts. Birch confirmed what Stilwell thought, that Chiang was conserving his troops and allied Lend-Lease supplies to use against Japanese and against Communist forces in a later civil war. Birch also warned Stilwell that his supply route, which opened up linking Burma and China, known as the Lido Road, would not be able to supply the large Nationalist force being recruited. Birch was promoted to captain in January 1945, when he was officially attached to the OSS. Birch started to display an open hatred of the Communists after seeing how brutal they were to their fellow Chinese citizens, especially if they were thought to be friendly to or in the service of Chiang's Nationalists. OSS Major Gustav Krauss, the senior intelligence officer commanding one of the three airbases in China and Captain Birch's CEO, noted, Birch is a good officer but I'm afraid is too brash and may run into trouble with regard to his anti-Communist position. It was noted that Birch was a simple but highly intelligent man as well as an ideologue. Back in Washington, Donovan and Alan Dulles, the future director of the soon-to-be-established Central Intelligence Agency, began creating a database on the Communists from Birch's reports. The U.S. had been supplying both groups but it was becoming apparent that Chiang failed to gain popular support. The war ended on August 14th and OSS agents in China were ordered north to take the surrender of Japanese commanders. But under the terms of the agreement, the Japanese army was ordered to continue occupying the areas it controlled until they could be surrendered to the Nationalist government. Even in places where the Communist-led government had been the de facto state for a decade, Mao Zedong was less than pleased. Birch received top-secret orders to bypass the Nationalists and speak with the Communists directly, preferably with Mao, and explained that they needed time to collect the Japanese and that continued fighting between the two of them would compromise the Japanese surrender. Birch told a friend that he was not worried about going to Communist-controlled territory since he had worked with Communists many times and had little trouble with them. On August 20th, Birch left Xi'an for Zhuzhou, where a Japanese facility and airfield was located, in command of a group consisting of two American soldiers, a civilian OSS operative, five Chinese officers, and two Koreans who spoke Japanese. Birch's mission, under direct orders from Lieutenant General Albert C. Wiedemeyer, the commander of U.S. forces in China, was to go to Shandong province and seize Japanese documents and to obtain information on airfields from which American prisons of war could be flown out. Birch and his group traveled by foot, by Chinese junk, and again by foot, until they reached what is now Shenqiu, along the Longhai Railway. The Chinese Communists still controlled much of the mountainous area and were still supposedly allies with the United States, but they were upset at not being allowed to accept the Japanese surrender. The Communists fought to remove the remaining Japanese forces, as well as all U.S. personnel, who they believed were openly collaborating with the Nationalists and Japanese. Mao and Cheng were still gearing up for their own civil war. On August 24th, Birch's group boarded a train with the Chinese general and his orderly, escorting them to Zhuzhou, where Birch was to meet another Chinese general. Evidence of the Communists killing hundreds of fellow Chinese was evident along the route. On the morning of August 25th, Birch took over a hand car and continued on to Zhuzhou with his group, the Chinese general and his orderly. Over a mile down the line, they ran into a group of 300 armed Communists. Birch and his aide, Lieutenant Tang, a Chinese, were told to surrender their weapons and equipment, which included three radios. Birch, wearing his army uniform, identified himself and refused to turn over his weapon and they were allowed to proceed. Later, Birch's group encountered another group of Communists who were ripping up tracks and cutting down telephone poles. With Tang's help in speaking with the Communists, the group was able to continue by hand car and pass through another group of Communists. Arriving at the Hanqiao railway station, Birch and Tang met the Communist military leader there with about 20 soldiers. Birch identified himself and refused to give up his sidearm. Tang, who was unarmed and tried to help Birch talk with the Communist leader, was shot. Tang was hit in the right thigh and then clubbed on the head with a rifle stock. Afterwards, Birch, whose pistol was still unholstered, was shot in the left thigh. They bound his ankles and hands, forced him to kneel and shot him in the head. Birch's body was then bayoneted and both bodies were thrown into a ditch. The rest of Birch's team were taken prisoner. Later, Chinese farmers took both bodies to the Chinese hospital at Zhuzhou, where an autopsy was completed on Birch. Tang survived. Lieutenant Bill Miller, whose group was to have met up with Birch's group at Zhuzhou, arrived on August 29th. Miller interviewed Tang, who had lost his right leg and eye. Two weeks later, the other prisoners were released. Many explanations and theories as to why Birch was killed have been proposed. Theories range from his group arriving at Huangkou instead of Ninchuan, Birch's scheduled meeting with the Chinese collaborationist troops of the 6th Army under General Hu Bingzhu, a simple misunderstanding by local guerrillas, or perhaps a provocation from Birch himself. Birch, along with two American pilots who had died in a plane crash at the Zhuzhou airport, were buried in side-by-side crypts. A Roman Catholic service was held in the cathedral in Zhuzhou by Italian Jesuit priests, and 24 Chinese individuals carried the three American flag-draped coffins in a procession to the burial site on the slopes of Honglong Mountain. Last rites were given at the graveside by a Chinese Christian minister. Miller, who was a friend of Birch, was in charge of the funeral, and both Chinese officers and even Japanese soldiers in attendance gave the deceased full military honors. It was later believed that a few disgruntled communists simply killed Birch without orders from Mao, and a scandal began. The investigation by OSS and the War Department was conducted in secret. Birch was posthumously awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal as a compensation. The US government, not wanting to escalate tensions, lied about the event. Birch's parents were told that he was killed by a stray bullet, but the secret came out after accidentally seeing details of his death due to the carelessness of a young military officer. George and Ethel Birch knew that something had gone terribly wrong, and they didn't even know that there had been an official investigation. For five years, Ethel traveled the country speaking with men who served with John in China. Finally, she wrote to California Senator William Noland, who finally was given access to John Birch's file that was marked top secret. He was shocked at what he saw and gave a speech on the floor of the Senate on September 5, 1950, exposing the cover-up. It was determined that bringing John Birch's death to light could have led to different relations with China and North Korea. Noland tried to obtain posthumous awards for Birch, including the Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart, but these were not approved on the grounds that the United States was not at war with communist Chinese forces in 1945. Welch then wrote and published his book, The Life of John Birch, in 1954. During my interview with Doolittle, he said this about the Tokyo raid and John Birch, quoting Doolittle, one of my crews had been captured by Chinese guerrillas, more than likely communists, and they were bound and robbed. We also heard that eight men had been captured by the Japanese. We also met an American missionary named John Birch. He helped us out and we eventually reached Chiu Chau by various means. He, meaning Birch, was a fine man, I thought. Captain Birch did receive the following military awards, Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit with Oak Leaf Cluster, Army Presidential Unit Citation, American Campaign Medal with Star, Asiatic Pacific Campaign Medal with Four Stars, World War II Victory Medal, Republic of China Medal of the Armed Forces, Grade B Second Class, Republic of China Order of the Cloud and Banner, and the Republic of China War Memorial Medal. The John Birch Society was established in his memory by Robert H. W. Welch, Jr. in 1958. Welch considered Birch to be a martyr and the first casualty of the Cold War. Thank you for watching this episode of Forgotten History. If you liked what you saw, please click like, share, and subscribe, and if you would like to assist with the ever-increasing costs of production, please consider becoming a channel member and joining our Patreon page. Please check out our merchandise store and thanks for watching.