As the saying goes: Success is also Xiao He, and defeat is also Xiao He. For Qian Xuesen, the same is true of his experience studying and working in the United States. December 11 is the 110th anniversary of Qian Xuesen's birth, and I wrote an article to recount why Qian Xuesen did not want to go to the United States again.
From 1935 to 1955, he spent twenty years in the United States. As early as the 1940s, he was already well known in the United States. At the age of 36, he not only earned his Ph.D., but was also a tenured professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a rarity among his peers in the United States. Especially in the field of aviation and rocketry in the United States, he has a fairly high reputation and is also an absolute authority in the field of supersonic aerodynamics. After the end of World War II, he was the only Asian among the experts sent by the United States to Germany to inspect post-war military equipment and technicians. At this time, Qian Xuesen can be described as young and vigorous, and the spring breeze is proud.
However, the sky is unpredictable, and people have bad luck and misfortune. A "McCarthy fear of red" wave in the United States after the war led to disaster and doom.
A generation leader, arrested and imprisoned
In 1949, the People's Republic of China was founded, and the news spread to the United States like a spring breeze. When Qian Xuesen learned the news of the founding of New China, he was extremely excited and made up his mind to return to his motherland and use the knowledge and talents he had learned to serve the new republic. So he began to prepare for his return to China.
Qian Xuesen's very resolute return to the motherland has its deep-seated reasons. As early as 1947, McCarthyism in the United States began to prevail, leading to an extreme fear of communism, for which President Harry Truman signed an order calling for a loyalty survey of all employees in the United States. Therefore, after conducting a large number of in-depth investigations and multi-party evidence collection by FBI personnel, The Ministry of Justice and other relevant departments conducted a large number of in-depth investigations and collected evidence from various sources, believing that he had communist tendencies in his thinking and suspected that he had links with a progressive organization and joined the organization. The investigation and suspicion behind the US side aroused Qian Xuesen's vigilance and felt that the situation was not good. Because it means that he is no longer trusted by the United States, this land is not suitable for him to continue to work for a long time.
At the same time, the FBI has begun to strengthen the prevention and control of Qian Xuesen and has taken a series of measures, such as revoking his license to engage in classified research and prohibiting him from accessing any secret information related to the military. It was under such circumstances that Qian Xuesen resolutely resigned from the position of consultant of the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, and also resigned from the post of director of the Jet Propulsion Center of the California Institute of Technology, and put forward a request to the US side to return to China on the grounds that his father's poor health and his father's only son needed his care.
In 1950, when Qian Xuesen was full of confidence to handle the checked baggage procedures, purchased a ticket and prepared to return to the motherland he missed day and night with his wife and son, on September 6, the nightmare suddenly came, Qian Xuesen was accused of stealing secret materials of the US military industry and returned to China, had ties with a communist organization in the United States, participated in a subversive group, and was arrested by the police, and thrown into a prison called Termino Island south of Los Angeles. Almost overnight, he went from a decent and glamorous "high-class white-collar worker" to a "prisoner under the order.". During his imprisonment, Qian Xuesen was also tortured by inhuman interrogation and prison life for about half a month. Later, the US side felt that the evidence for Qian Xuesen's arrest was insufficient, and this practice was a bit excessive, and many well-known people in the US side also fought against Qian Xuesen's unfortunate encounter and carried out solidarity activities, and the media also made a lot of factual reports on the incident. In order to find a step to the end, the US side asked Qian Xuesen to pay $15,000 as bail to allow him to get out of prison. Therefore, Mrs. Jiang Ying managed to raise this huge amount of money before bailing Qian Xuesen out.
In 2019, the People's Scientist Qian Xuesen Special Exhibition opened at the China Aerospace Museum in Beijing
Later, according to Jiang Ying's recollection, when Qian Xuesen was released from prison, he was sluggish, emotionally wooden, unwilling to speak, and silent for a long time. A person who was originally very emotional and has a very lively personality is now like another person. And his weight suddenly lost more than 20 pounds. The blow to him was too great.
In fact, to put it bluntly, at that time, the US government was extremely reluctant for Qian Xuesen to return to China to help New China develop aviation, missiles, and rockets. U.S. Navy Vice President Kim Bell (who was a good friend of Qian Xuesen's) shouted: "Qian Xuesen knows the core secrets of all missile rocket projects in the United States." One Qian Xuesen is worth 5 Marine Divisions, and I'd rather shoot this guy than let him go back to serve Red China. ”
After the US side released Qian Xuesen, although Qian Xuesen returned home, he was placed under house arrest and lost his freedom. The U.S. Department of Justice's Immigration and Naturalization Bureau announced: "Qian Xuesen has been convicted of being a former expatriate member of the United States Communist Party and must therefore be repatriated (deported) from the country." "But at the same time he was not allowed to leave the United States." Under the U.S. Internal Security Act, Qian Xuesen must report to designated locations regularly during his house arrest, report to the bail officer, and swear an oath of recent personal behavior and related activities. In this way, from 1950 to 1955, for Qian Xuesen, it was a dark and humiliating time, and he was extremely depressed and depressed.
Negotiations with the United States have become chips
One day in May 1955, Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying unexpectedly found a copy of the People's Pictorial in a basket of vegetables delivered by a takeaway, which published a photograph of the leaders of the new Chinese state inspecting the procession on the upper floor of Tiananmen Square, including a photo of Chen Shutong, who was sometimes vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. Because Chen Shutong was the teacher of his and Jiang Ying's fathers, Qian Xuesen and his wife had great respect for Chen Shutong and called him "Uncle Lao" or "Tai Teacher".
Therefore, Qian Xuesen immediately thought of writing a letter of help to Chen Shutong. The letter expressed his strong desire to "not miss the motherland for a day, for a moment, and for a moment, and to participate in the climax of great construction." After the letter was written, Jiang Ying wrote an envelope with his left hand imitating the handwriting of the elementary school student. Because the family was under house arrest and was under constant surveillance when they went out, they had a lot of thoughts about how to deliver the letter. Jiang Ying recalled that when sending letters, under the pretext of shopping, he first went to a humble black supermarket, diverted the line of sight of the tracking agent through seven turns and eight turns and crowds, and then quietly threw the letter into a postbox. Of course, this letter could not be sent directly to China, and they decided to "save the country by curve", first sending the letter to Jiang Hua, the sister of Jiang Ying in Belgium, who sent it to His father Qian Junfu in Shanghai, and then transferred it to Chen Shutong's hands. It was this letter of request for help that became the real evidence for the Chinese government to grasp the US side's deliberate obstruction of the return of international students to the motherland, and also became an important bargaining chip in diplomatic negotiations with the United States after the end of the Korean War, which played a key role in helping and rescuing Qian Xuesen and a large number of international students to return to China.
In February 1956, Comrade Mao Zedong and Comrade Qian Xuesen talked at a banquet held by the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at Huairen Hall in Zhongnanhai
In 1955, through the mediation and efforts of the Chinese government through diplomatic negotiations, and with the solidarity of the righteous forces, the US government was forced to release Qian Xuesen and a large number of stranded students in the United States under pressure from all sides. Since Qian Xuesen is a special person, whether to agree to Qian Xuesen's return to China is decided by a joint meeting of the US Department of Defense and the State Department, and finally approved by US President Eisenhower. Eisenhower thought that the Korean War was over and that Qian Xuesen would not have a "place to play" in China, so he said: "Let him go back!" ”
On October 8 of the same year, the Qian Xuesen family's "President Cleveland" cruise ship arrived in Hong Kong, China, and set foot on the land of Shenzhen. There are more than 40 international students who returned to China with Qian Xuesen. Even on the way back to China, because Qian Xuesen was declared deported, he was also subject to the "special treatment" of being escorted back to China by the US side. The US side specially sent two police officers to follow them all the way until they were "escorted" to Hong Kong with the ship, which was regarded as the completion of this deportation mission.
Grumpy, not out of rhythm
The hegemonic acts and persecution acts of the US government in those years, as well as the inexplicable framing and insulting of Qian Xuesen, really made him pregnant for a lifetime. After Qian Xuesen returned to China, he was immediately reused by New China and became the pioneer and founder of China's "two bombs and one satellite" cause. He used extraordinary wisdom to lead the older generation of astronauts to rely on themselves, work hard, overcome unimaginable difficulties, and finally create the great cause of "two bombs and one satellite", so he was known as "the father of China's aerospace" or "the father of China's missiles".
With the thawing of Sino-US relations and the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries, in 1979, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Qian Xuesen's graduation, the California Institute of Technology decided to award Qian Xuesen the "Outstanding Alumni Award", hoping that he could come to the United States to receive the award. Qian Xuesen said in his reply: "I will not come to the United States to receive the award, because I was deported by you Americans. I still live under your deportation order. If I go back to the United States, I will have new troubles. In the end, Caltech had no choice but to send the medals and certificates of the "Outstanding Alumni Award" directly to the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and they forwarded them to Qian Xuesen.
In August 1978, Qian Xuesen came to the National Youth Aviation Summer Camp camp to sign a commemorative photo for the teenagers
In 1985, Kierworth, president of the United States, scientific adviser to President Reagan, told Song Jianshi, then director of the State Science and Technology Commission, when meeting in Beijing, that Qian Xuesen had worked in the United States for 20 years and had made great contributions to the progress of science and technology and the development of military science in the United States. The US side was willing to invite Qian Xuesen to visit the United States and award Qian Xuesen the US National Medal of Science. Qian Xuesen's response to this was: "I have no reason and will not plan to go to the United States again." At that time, I had been thinking about returning to China for a long time. I believe I made no mistake in my decision. I will do my utmost to build my country with Chinese people so that my compatriots can live a happy life with dignity. ”
In 1986, the U.S. government intended to invite Qian Xuesen to visit the United States to make up for the unfair treatment of him in the past, but this compensation was carried out in a non-governmental manner, and the government was unwilling to take a stand on the past practices. Qian Xuesen said in his reply: "When I left the United States, I was deported by you, and according to the provisions of US law, I can no longer go to the United States. If the U.S. government does not publicly rehabilitate me, I will not set foot on U.S. territory again in this life and in this life. "We Chinese have the dignity of the country and the nation, and since the US side cannot express its position on the unfair treatment of me in the past, then I will never go to the United States." "If Chinese people say that Qian Xuesen has done something for the country and the nation, it is the highest reward." I am not rare in those foreign honors and titles! ”
On October 16, 1991, 80-year-old Qian Xuesen held a ceremony held by the State Council and the Central Military Commission to confer on him the honorary title of "National Outstanding Contribution Scientist"
In 1989, the International Conference on Technology and Technology Exchange and the International Institute of Technology decided to award dr. Qian Xuesen with the "Little Rockwell Award" of that year, in recognition of his significant pioneering contributions to the rocket and missile industry and systems engineering theory. It was also the first Chinese to receive this award. For this award with high gold content, Qian Xuesen also refused to go to the United States to receive the award. He said: "I am not rare in what awards Americans give me. And what I value is that the first Chinese to win this award. I said that what mattered was the three words 'Chinese', and that 'Chinese' should include thousands of people who had contributed to it. He also said: My career is in China, my achievements are in China, and my destination is in China. For this award, Qian Xuesen said that he had no intention of visiting the United States at all, nor was he interested in receiving this award in the United States. Later, the award had to be received by Han Su, the Chinese ambassador to the United States.
On the issue of principle on whether to go to the United States, Qian Xuesen has a resolute attitude and there is no room for negotiation. No matter what honors the United States gave him, what medals, and all kinds of tricks used to lure him to visit the United States, he was never moved.
Until 2009, Qian Xuesen died at the age of 98, and he never set foot on U.S. territory again.
Photo source: Xinhua News Agency; The title picture shows Qian Xuesen answering questions for students, taken in 1964
(The author is a senior consultant of Qian Xuesen Library of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a member of Shanghai Writers Association)