Figure 丨 Qian Xuesen
preface
On October 8, 1955, an American cruise ship approached the Hong Kong dock, and a man nearly 40 years old hurriedly stepped off the cruise ship until he stepped on the land, and he only took a long breath, this person was Qian Xuesen.
The reason why he was so anxious and nervous to set foot on the land of his homeland was because his journey back to China was so difficult.
Go to the United States to study
Born in Shanghai on December 11, 1911, Qian Xuesen came to Beijing with his father when he was 3 years old, and in 1929, he was admitted to the Mechanical Engineering Department of Jiaotong University, during which time he came into contact with socialism.
In 1934, after Qian Xuesen graduated from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Jiaotong University,
Admitted to Tsinghua University majoring in aircraft design, in August 1935, 24-year-old Qian Xuesen boarded a cruise ship in Shanghai to the United States
At this time, he must not have imagined that this trip to the United States would be easy to go back to.
In the United States, Qian Xuesen entered the Department of Aeronautical Engineering of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study, and Qian Xuesen, who has maintained excellent results since childhood, is still here.
About Qian Xuesen's good grades, there is also a small story:
Once, the teacher's exam questions were very difficult, the students in the class could not do it, so a large piece of failure, after everyone discussed, decided to find the teacher to protest together, just came to the door of the teacher's office, saw the door pasted with Qian Xuesen's examination paper, neat and tidy, even the traces of modification are very few, the key is all right! As a result, no one had any more opinions.
Despite his excellent grades, Qian Xuesen's time in MIT is not very long, and it is said that it is not very pleasant, one is because the American aviation factory rejects Chinese internship, the other is that MIT emphasizes hands-on ability, and Qian Xuesen is better at calculation and theory.
In the field of aeronautical engineering, along with MIT, there is also the California Institute of Technology, and MIT is different, Caltech pays more attention to theoretical training, which is the director of Qian Xuesen.
Qian Xuesen, who came to Caltech, found Von Carmen, the head of the Department of Aviation
Feng Kamen admired Qian Xuesen very much and received it directly from his own disciples.
In the first semester, Qian Xuesen hardly interacted with his classmates, he spent all his time on studying and researching, and in class, he often asked difficult questions, leaving teachers and classmates scratching their heads.
Picture 丨 group photo
At one point, Epstein, a professor in the Department of Physics, asked Von Carmen, "Is money of Jewish descent?" (In the West, Jews are considered particularly intelligent, and von Carmen is also Jewish)")
I have to say that Feng Kamen's education method is also very in line with Qian Xuesen, so when other students racked their brains, Qian Xuesen only felt like a fish in the water, so intelligent, and also had a tacit understanding with Feng Kamen Qian Xuesen, and soon became Feng Kamen's right-hand man in his research work.
Many times, it is Feng Carmen's inspiration, there is a big framework, Qian Xuesen does not tire of calculus to verify, other professors evaluate the pair of teachers and students:
"Qian Xuesen improved Von Carmen's creativity, and his outstanding mathematical skills were able to put Von Carmen's ideas into practice in the shortest possible time."
In 1939, Qian Xuesen published a paper proposing the von Carmen and Qian formula, which is said to be very useful for the design of high-speed aircraft, and aeronautical engineer Smith once said:
"Before the advent of modern computers, everyone used the von Carmen and money formulas."
In addition to working with his teacher Von Carmen, Qian Xuesen also participated in a local society called Rocket Fans, where he helped his friend Marina complete papers and won the gold medal at the Paris Science Competition.
In her letter to her family, Marina wrote:
"Qian Xuesen has helped me a lot, and he really should be named." He is a man of superior will, ten days and nights to delve into a thorny problem, the final solution is still not ideal, he originally walked out of the research room, and ran back, plucked up the courage, start over, this kind of person, will definitely become a great instrument. ”
Picture 丨 Qian Xuesen at Caltech
In 1943, Qian Xuesen was hired by caltech as an assistant professor in the department of aeronautics, in addition to research work, he also had to give lessons to the students sent by the U.S. military to receive training, Qian Xuesen liked smart and mathematical students, and naturally had little patience for trainees who were much different from Caltech students.
Some students who have taken Qian Xuesen's course said that Qian Xuesen was very "ruthless" in class, if you raise your hand and ask him if you don't understand, he will not answer, someone asked him why he did not answer, Qian Xuesen said, "He is just stating a fact, what do I answer?" ”
From 1944 to 1945,
Qian Xuesen was invited to the Pentagon to become a member of the US military's scientific advisory group, and on the eve of Germany's surrender, he and Von Carmen were sent to Germany to collect information on German rocket research and development.
In 1946, Qian Xuesen resigned from caltech and returned to MIT, and on the recommendation of Von Kármán, the 36-year-old Qian Xuesen became the youngest full professor at MIT.
Here, Qian Xuesen's way of lecturing is still controversial, he lectures on the density of knowledge is too large, coupled with the harshness of people, not close to human feelings, so the effect does not seem to be very good, the final exam, only one person in the class passed, the average score is about 14 points, later, Qian Xuesen or returned to Caltech.
In 1948, the momentum of the Chinese People's Liberation War was just right, and Qian Xuesen, who had been paying attention to the development of the situation in the motherland, realized that maybe he would soon be able to return to China! At this time,
He has begun to resign from a number of positions
Unexpectedly, just by resigning from his post, he had already encountered many difficulties.
Many posts were delayed for more than a year
Qian Xuesen had already expected that his way back to China might not be particularly easy.
Figure丨 Founding of New China
In 1949, the founding of New China,
At this time, the United States was carrying out a comprehensive investigation of the Communists, and set off a wave of driving employees to be loyal to the United States, qian Xuesen was suspected of being a Communist in this wave, but also because he refused to expose his friends, the US military department revoked the certificate of participation in confidential research
This made Qian Xuesen extremely angry, and he used this as an excuse to ask to return to China.
Days of imprisonment
On August 29, 1950, Qian Xuesen painstakingly obtained several tickets to return to China, and just when he was full of expectations and preparing to return to the motherland with his family, an unexpected thing happened:
Qian Xuesen was detained by the United States.
It was the FBI that detained him, but it was Los Angeles Customs who held a press conference, and Los Angeles Customs declared,
In Qian Xuesen's luggage, intelligence involving us classified technology was found, and the reason why the FBI withheld Qian Xuesen was because Qian Xuesen was ready to smuggle this US intelligence back to China, and Qian Xuesen himself was a red spy in New China.
And what Los Angeles Customs did not dare to say is,
Qian Xuesen had previously handed over the luggage to the relevant departments for inspection, and there was no problem in the inspection, and after the inspection was reviewed, the inspectors at that time were also willing to testify for Qian Xuesen to prove his innocence.
Regarding Qian Xuesen's detention, it is also related to one person, that is, the US Navy Under Secretary Daniel Kimbell.
Qian Xuesen before leaving, out of courtesy, made a phone call to Say goodbye to Daniel Kimbell, and after hanging up the phone, Daniel Kimbell immediately called the USCIS and said in a strong tone,
"Say nothing and let Qian Xuesen go back to China, no matter where he is, he will top 5 divisions alone."
In addition to Qian Xuesen's ability, there is another reason, that is, in June 1950,
When the Korean War broke out, China and the United States were in hostile relations, and letting Qian Xuesen return to China was tantamount to letting the tiger return to the mountains.
At that time, the real reason written in the documents handed to Qian Xuesen by the Immigration Bureau was also,
"Chinese who have undertaken research and design work on atomic bombs, rockets or weapons in the United States cannot leave the United States, because their talents will be used by the United Nations armed forces in North Korea."
In this way, Qian Xuesen spent 15 days of humiliation in the Temina Island Prison, during which time he could not rest, and once he was a little tired and sleepy, someone would come to interrogate him and make him exhausted.
Picture 丨Temina Island Prison
Later, thanks to the joint efforts of Caltech and Chinese students studying abroad, Qian Xuesen was granted bail after paying $15,000 in bail.
After bail, Qian Xuesen's life is still affected a lot, no matter where he goes, there are people behind him, and he needs to register with the immigration bureau every month, and he also needs to accept the summons of the immigration bureau at any time.
Qian Xuesen has not opened the box that was previously detained by customs, and perhaps he is still waiting, waiting for the day when his freedom is restored, and he will leave the United States immediately.
After the news of Qian Xuesen's detention by the United States reached China, New China thought of many rescue methods, and between the international environment and comprehensive national strength at that time, the Chinese side could not find a breakthrough at all.
For example, on the battlefield of the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, we had a lot of US prisoners in our hands, and the US military wanted the Chinese side to release their prisoners, or Americans with relatives in China went to visit the prisoner camp.
In order to show its sincerity, the Chinese side released a number of US prisoners
The remaining U.S. prisoners are eagerly awaiting the day of their release.
The Chinese side and the US side began to negotiate, and the Chinese side only wanted Qian Xuesen and a group of patriotic scientists to return to China smoothly, but every time, the US side used the excuse that "Qian Xuesen lives very well in the United States, he himself does not want to return to China, and the Chinese side has no evidence to prove that Qian Xuesen himself wants to return to China" to prevaricate.
After several negotiations, the Chinese side is in a passive situation, and it can be seen that the US side has no sincerity to discuss this matter with China, and the negotiations have slowly reached an impasse.
In May 1955, things finally turned around, one day, Qian Xuesen was reading a newspaper at home, and suddenly, in a dense Chinese, he saw a name - Chen Shutong, Qian Xuesen excitedly said to Jiang Ying,
"Chen Shutong is his father's hometown and friend, and he still is
The members of the central government of New China must have a way to help me return to China! ”
Figure 丨 Chen Shutong
On June 15, Qian Xuesen wrote a family letter to Jiang Ying's cousin, who was far away in Belgium, sandwiched between a letter written on cigarette paper to Chen Shutong and attached a palm-sized New York Times briefing note.
One day, Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying went out together, two American agents immediately followed behind them, Qian Xuesen and his two sons came to a café, ordered some coffee, snacks, sat down and slowly tasted, it seemed that they were going to spend some time here, the agent saw the situation, and also sat down at the neighboring table.
After a while, Qian Xuesen told Jiang Ying to go to the bathroom, the agent heard the conversation between the two, he did not take it seriously, Qian Xuesen left alone, and threw the letter sent to his Belgian cousin into the mailbox.
In this way, the letter came to Belgium, and Jiang Ying's cousin, after seeing the cigarette paper sandwiched in the family letter, immediately understood and immediately sent the cigarette paper written to Chen Shutong and the report brief of the New York Times back to China.
Picture 丨Qian Xuesen and Jiang Ying
After many days of tossing and turning, the letter finally reached Chen Shutong's hand,
Chen Shutong handed the letter to Zhou Enlai and other central leaders, and Zhou Enlai quickly made careful arrangements.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs quickly transferred the letter to Wang Bingnan, who was negotiating with the US side in Geneva, and gave instructions.
"This letter is very valuable, this is ironclad evidence that the United States is still obstructing the return of Chinese civilians, and in the negotiations, we must use this letter to expose their lies."
On August 1, the talks continued, and at the beginning, Wang Bingnan preemptively attacked.
"Before we begin the discussion, I would like to inform you of the following news: The Chinese government released 11 American pilots on July 31, they have left Beijing on July 31, and it is estimated that they will be able to reach Hong Kong on August 4, and I hope that this measure taken by the Chinese government will have a positive impact on our next talks."
When the Chinese side once again raised the issue of Qian Xuesen's return to China, the US side was still the same as before.
"There is no evidence that Qian Xuesen asked to return to China, and in the absence of Qian Xuesen's own request to return to China, the US government cannot force a person with the capacity to do what he is unwilling to do in order to meet the Chinese government's demands!"
Picture 丨 Wang Bingnan
Fortunately, the Chinese side already had evidence in hand, and Wang Bingnan calmly took out Qian Xuesen's letter.
"Please take a good look at what is written in this letter, Dr. Qian Xuesen is exactly the opposite of what you said!" Since Qian Xuesen himself is willing to return to China, then please ask the United States to fulfill its promise, in addition, the United States issued an announcement as early as April 1955, saying that students studying in the United States are free to come and go, so why did Chinese scientist Qian Xuesen seek help from the Chinese government in June? Obviously, Chinese scholars have been hindered from returning to China! ”
In the face of ironclad evidence, the US side was speechless and had to approve Qian Xuesen's request to return to China.
On the way home
On August 4, 1955, Qian Xuesen regained his freedom, and after five years of tossing, he now only wants to quickly return to his motherland on the other side of the ocean, and never recall this unhappy past.
The principal of the California Institute of Technology asked Qian Xuesen, "What do you think about going from one of the most developed capitalist countries in the world to a poor and backward agricultural country?" ”
Qian Xuesen is happy to be able to go home,
"As long as I can return to my motherland, I can plant apple trees."
Picture 丨 Qian Xuesen and his father took a group photo
Before leaving, Qian Xuesen received a mysterious telegram from his father, which said:
I am glad that Qian Xuesen can finally go home, but on the way home, do not get off the boat, after arriving at the destination, someone will pick him up at the border.
Qian Xuesen understood that his father was a kind heart, worried that someone would calculate to hurt himself, so he also took this sentence to heart.
On September 17, after Saying goodbye to Von Kármán, Qian Xuesen boarded a cruise ship with Jiang Ying and a pair of children, and the American agents who had been monitoring Qian Xuesen also came to the dock to monitor Qian Xuesen's departure.
In addition to these two American agents, there are also many media reporters, and one reporter asked Qian Xuesen whether he still plans to return?
Qian Xuesen replied very solemnly, "No, I have no reason to come back again, I have been thinking about it for a long time, in the days to come,
I intend to do my best to build my country so that Chinese can live a dignified life.
”
Another reporter asked whether Qian Xuesen had been artificially delayed in returning to China, and Qian Xuesen replied: "Yes, I have indeed been artificially delayed in returning to China, you can ask the US government what it has done." ”
The Qian Xuesen family returned to China
Qian Xuesen was like an arrow, after regaining his freedom, he did not want to stay in the United States for a moment, even if only the third-class ticket was left, Qian Xuesen still did not hesitate to buy it.
During the voyage, Qian Xuesen always remembered his father's advice, no matter how many ports he passed, he never got off the ship.
"When the ship passes through some ports, many Chinese students will go to the shore to take a look, but I can't go, because this ship symbolizes American territory, and once it leaves this ship, the United States has no obligation to protect, then the agents on the shore will try their best to get rid of me, so no matter how uncomfortable it is, I have to stay on the ship."
The cruise ship sailed at sea for more than 20 days, and finally arrived in Hong Kong on October 8, Zhu Zhaoxiang and others came to Shenzhen Luohu Bridge early, checked the surrounding unsafe factors, and successfully received Qian Xuesen's family.
The Luohu Bridge is a railway bridge connecting Hong Kong to Shenzhen, and the safety of Shenzhen can be guaranteed, but the Hong Kong side is a British soldier on duty, and everyone is really gunned, there will be some uncertainties.
Qian Xuesen's son Qian Yonggang recalled the situation at that time.
"My mother, Jiang Ying, told me that when they crossed the Luohu Bridge, once they found out that the situation was not right, she would immediately block in front of her father and protect his safety."
Figure 丨 Jiang Ying
Fortunately, the Qian Xuesen family safely crossed the Luohu Bridge, and they finally returned to the mainland of the motherland, and their hearts that had been wandering outside for a long time were finally solidified.
After a few days of rest, Qian Xuesen's family came to Shanghai, and Qian Xuesen met his father Qian Junfu and asked for a telegram that "do not get off the ship halfway".
As a result, Qian Junfu said that he had not sent such a telegram
Although he had doubts in his heart, Qian Xuesen did not continue to ask questions.
Later, Qian Xuesen threw himself into the construction of the motherland without stopping, and the small matter of telegraphy was naturally forgotten.
It was not until 50 years later that the sender of this mysterious telegram was exposed, it turned out that the international situation was very complicated at that time, and China and many Western countries did not establish diplomatic relations, and even in a state of hostility, in order to avoid unnecessary trouble.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent the telegram in the name of Qian Xuesen's father
I hope to give Qian Xuesen a wake-up call and ensure that their family can return to the motherland safely.
And Qian Xuesen's contribution to China does not need to be said, he is the founder of China's manned spaceflight, the father of China's science system, and the king of rockets.
Mao Zedong once said,
"Daniel Kimbell of the United States said that Qian Xuesen can be worth 5 divisions, according to my opinion, there are more than 5 divisions, and for our country, Qian Xuesen is equivalent to 10 divisions."
Such a great patriotic scientist deserves to be remembered by every Chinese!