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Finding Aid to the John S. Service Papers, 1925-1999
BANC MSS 87/21
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Table of contents
Collection Title: John S. Service papers,
Date (inclusive): 1925-1999
Collection Number: BANC MSS 87/21
Creators :
Service, John S. (John Stewart), 1909-1999
Extent:
Number of containers: Number of containers: 12 boxes, 4 cartons, 2 card file boxes, 1 oversize box, and 5 oversize folders
Linear feet: 11.5
Repository: The Bancroft Library
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, California, 94720-6000
Phone: (510) 642-6481
Fax: (510) 642-7589
Email: bancref@library.berkeley.edu
URL: http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/
Abstract:
The John S. Service Papers, 1925-1999, document the life experiences of "Jack" Service, a member of the United States Foreign
Service who was posted to China during the 1930s and 1940s, and later accused of "losing China to the Communists." As one
of the "Old China Hands," Service was implicated in the
Amerasia Affair and arrested. Although he was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing, Service was repeatedly accused of questionable
loyalty to the United States, and dismissed. His reinstatement and public exoneration are covered, as is his subsequent career
as a China specialist at the University of California, Berkeley. Personal and family papers round out the collection by providing
another glimpse of this very private man.
Languages Represented: Collection materials are in English and Chinese
Physical Location: Many of the Bancroft Library collections are stored offsite and advance notice may be required for use. For current information
on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Collection is open for research.
All requests to reproduce, publish, quote from or otherwise use collection materials must be submitted in writing to the Head
of Public Services, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 94270-6000. Consent is given on behalf of The
Bancroft Library as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission from the copyright
owner. Such permission must obtained from the copyright owner. See:
http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/reference/permissions.html .
Restrictions also apply to digital representations of the original materials. Use of digital files is restricted to research
and educational purposes.
[Identification of item], John S. Service Papers, BANC MSS 87/21, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
There are no alternate forms of this collection.
Additional Notes on Collection:
Publication of John Service's "Unpublished Memoirs" is restricted: they "may not be published without [written] permission
of the executor of John Service's estate."
At The Bancroft Library:
John S. Service: State Department Duty in China, the McCarthy Era, and after, 1933-1977, Oral history transcript, BANC MSS
82/106 c
Caroline Schulz Service: State Department Duty in China, the McCarthy era, and after, 1933-1977, Oral history transcript,
BANC MSS 79/82 c
Caroline Service Letters to Lisa Green, BANC MSS 99/81 cz
Grace Service Papers, BANC MSS 87/22 cz
At the Harry S. Truman Presidential Library, National Archives and Records Service: Combined Papers of John S. Service and
Charles E. Rhetts
Printed materials have been transferred to the book collection of The Bancroft Library.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Fairbank, John King, 1907-1991
Service, John S. (John Stewart), 1909-1999--Archives
Rhetts, Charles E. (Charles Edward), 1910-1971
Davies, John Paton, 1908-
Kennan, George F. (George Frost), 1904-2005
Tydings, Millard Evelyn, 1890-
McCarthy, Joseph, 1908-1957
United States. Foreign Service--Officials and Employees
United States. Loyalty Review Board
United States. Dept. of State
Anti-communist movements--United States
Sino-Japanese Conflict, 1937-1945--Diplomatic history
Diplomats--United States
Diplomatic and consular service, American
United States--Politics and government--1945-1989
United States--Foreign relations--China
China--Politics and government--20th century
China--Foreign relations--United States
Memoirs.
Addresses.
Testimonies.
The John S. Service Papers were given to The Bancroft Library by John Stewart ("Jack") Service in July 1986. Additions were
made by his estate in February 1999, and related materials that had been given to the Center for Chinese Studies Library at
the University of California, Berkeley by his estate in February 1999 were transferred to The Bancroft Library on November
9, 2001.
No additions are expected.
Originally processed by a Manuscripts Division student assistant in 1987. Reviewed and reprocessed by Mary L. Morganti in
1999, with additions completed in 2001. Classified documents found in collection were sent to the State Department for review
in 2004. All were declassified in September 2004, returned, and integrated back into the collection in 2005.
John Service, the son of American YMCA missionaries, was born August 3, 1909 in Chengtu, China and spent his school years
there, in Chungking, and in Shanghai. Following his graduation from Oberlin College in 1931, he joined the Foreign Service
as a clerk at the American consulate in Kunming. He went to Beijing for language training in 1935-1937, and then served in
Shanghai until the U.S. entry into World War II. From 1942 to 1945, Service was in Chungking, for much of that time on the
staff of General Joseph Stillwell.
In July 1944, Service was a member of the first contingent of Americans that went to Yenan, where the Chinese Communist forces
had their headquarters: the Dixie Mission. His reporting on conversations with Mao Tse-tung and other top leaders provided
U.S. policy-makers with first hand information on Communist plans for China after Japanese defeat. On the basis of long experience
and knowledge of China, Service came to believe it very likely that the Communists would prevail over Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist
Party. For that reason, and also because the Communists had proved effective in fighting the Japanese, Service was one of
many Americans in China at the time who advocated providing some military assistance to them. Many read Service's dispatches
as a realistic assessment of power in China. However others, most notably Patrick Hurley, the Ambassador to China in 1944-1945,
and the pro-Chiang China Lobby thought that Service's recommendations were evidence that he was pro-communist.
The
Amerasia affair further complicated Service's difficulties with the Political Right. Soon after returning from China in April 1945,
Service met Philip Jaffe, the editor of
Amerasia, a leftist magazine on Asian affairs. Service did not know that the FBI had Jaffe under surveillance for possessing secret
government documents and unwittingly provided him with background material for an article, including copies of some of his
reports. In June, Service was one of six arrested for alleged espionage. Service defended himself by claiming it was normal
for government officials to pass on certain documents to journalists as background material. A federal grand jury voted unanimously
not to indict Service and a State Department Loyalty Review Board cleared him of any wrongdoing.
Senator Joseph R. McCarthy revived the loyalty question in 1950. Drawing on material supplied by the China Lobby, he announced
that Service was a "known associate and collaborator with Communists" who had been "consorting with admitted espionage agents."
The
Wisconsin Republican claimed that J. Edgar Hoover had stated that he thought he had a 100% case against Service. The State Department recalled
Service who was then on a ship headed for India and the post of Political Conselor in New Delhi.
The State Department Loyalty Review Board again examined the Amerasia case. It heard testimony from both George Kennan and
John K. Fairbank attesting to Service's anti-communism. The FBI provided material designed to convince the panel that Service
had fathered an illegitimate child while in China. The Board once again cleared Service. Concurrent with that review, a Senate
panel led by Millard Tydings examined McCarthy's charges. Service testified that he had been indiscreet in giving Jaffe material,
but then repeated that it was routine to do so. The Tydings Committee cleared Service of any wrongdoing.
In the fall of 1951, the Civil Service Loyalty Review Board, which had the power to examine cases already decided by the
State Department, took up the case. In December it ruled that there was "reasonable doubt" about Service's loyalty, and cited
the Amerasia case as justification for this decision. Secretary of State, Dean Acheson then fired Service.
Service fought his ouster through the courts. In 1957, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the Department of State had
not followed its own established procedures in firing Service and ordered him reinstated. Service resumed his diplomatic career
and served as Consul in Liverpool from 1959 to 1962. However his case remained politically sensitive and the Department was
unwilling to promote him or give him an assignment drawing upon his China experience.
Service retired in 1962 and he and his wife, Caroline, lived in Berkeley and Oakland, California, until their deaths in 1999
and 1997, respectively. After receiving an M.A. in political science at Berkeley in 1963, Service worked for a number of years
in the Center for Chinese Studies at the University. He made four trips to China in the 1970s and 1980s, and was a member
of many organizations seeking to strengthen U.S.-China relations. For many years Service edited China-related books for the
University of California Press.
Written by his son, Ambassador Robert E. Service,
February 2002
Scope and Content of Collection
The John S. Service Papers, 1925-1999, document the life experiences of "Jack" Service, a member of the United States Foreign
Service who was posted to China during the 1930s and 1940s, and later accused of "losing China to the Communists." As one
of the "Old China Hands," Service was implicated in the
Amerasia Affair and arrested. Although he was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing, Service was repeatedly accused of questionable
loyalty to the United States, and dismissed. His reinstatement and public exoneration are covered here, as is his subsequent
career as a China specialist at the University of California, Berkeley. Personal and family papers round out the collection
by providing another glimpse of this very private man.
A significant part of the collection centers around the defense Service prepared to clear his name. Correspondence files
contain letters from many of his longtime family friends, and former diplomatic and political associates. In response to various
hearings and other legal proceedings, which are documented in some depth, Jack's efforts included his own personal statements,
soliciting affidavits of support from friends and colleagues, and gathering documents that could assist his attorney in preparing
his defense. Correspondence with his legal counsel, Charles Edward Rhetts and others, is also included. Newspaper clippings
about Jack Service during the 1950s convey a sense of the McCarthy Era Red Scare. The investigations of Jack Service continued
throughout this time, and involved political figures such as Joseph McCarthy, Dean Acheson, and J. Edgar Hoover.
Following his retirement from the Foreign Service, Jack Service began to write and give talks about China and U.S.-China
relations. Although there is little documentation of his work at the University of California's Center for Chinese Studies.
It is during this time that he traveled to China on four occasions, became the subject of several interviews, television documentaries,
and articles, and was finally given recognition and honors for his contributions to understanding China. Also of particular
interest in the collection are two versions of his autobiographical memoirs, along with family correspondence and papers,
which include the memoirs of his mother, Grace Service, that Jack edited for publication.