The Chinese Communist Murder of John Birch 75 Years Later
After Emperor Hirohito announced the surrender of Japan in August 1945, Captain John Birch, a young American intelligence officer in the U.S. Army stationed in China, was directed by General Albert Wedemeyer and others to get to Japanese bases in China as quickly as possible. Once there, they would arrange for the surrender of Japanese forces before Chinese Communist forces could take advantage of the situation.
Birch was ordered to Suchow, located near the Pacific coast, and he set out on August 20, less than a week after Hirohito’s capitulation. On August 25, Birch was brutally murdered by Chinese Communists before he could reach his destination. He was first shot in the leg, then bayonetted to death.
Captain Birch was killed by a supposed ally while on a peaceful Army mission, and that fact was buried in a massive coverup by forces within the U.S. government who did not want the American people to know the truth — the communists under Mao Tse-tung were not simply “agrarian reformers,” and they were not our allies. Adeline Gray, a newspaper reporter, wrote Birch’s parents that “had not the truth been suppressed, Captain Birch’s death would have headlined every newspaper in the United States.”
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