Oliver Edmund Clubb

Oliver Edmund Clubb (16 February 1901 - 9 May 1989) was a 20th-century American diplomat and historian. He was considered one of the China Hands: United States State Department officials attacked during McCarthyism in the 1950s for "losing China" to the Communists.

Background

Oliver Edmund Clubb was born on February 16, 1901, in South Park, Minnesota. His father was a cattle rancher. He had one brother (surviving at his time of death), Lester Clubb. ) Clubb was delivering a letter from Agnes Smedley, a well-known left-wing American journalist in China. Clubb denied any knowledge of any wrongdoing by delivering the letter (whose contents he did not know).

A second cause, also in 1932, was a report he made that the Chinese Communists were strong and popular in many regions, while the Chinese Nationalists were corrupt–although the Nationalists might force the Communists to flee west (predicting the Long March, "later to be cited by his critics as evidence of his pro-Communist leanings."

Clubb won an appeal for reinstatement but then resigned as he decided that "his career was finished." He was one of four China Hands dismissed or who resigned from State: John Paton Davies, Jr., John S. Service, John Carter Vincent.

Personal and death

Clubb married Mariann E. H. Smith; they had one daughter and one son.

He died age 88 on May 9, 1989, of Parkinson's disease at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center.

Writings

After being forced out of the State Department, Clubb pursued a vigorous career in scholarly writing, including: Clubb, O. Edmund. "Chiang Kai-shek's Waterloo: The Battle of the Hwai-Hai." Pacific Historical Review 25.4 (1956): 389-399. online Clubb, O. Edmund. "Manchuria in the Balance, 1945-1946." Pacific Historical Review 26.4 (1957): 377-389. online Clubb, O. Edmund. "China's Position in Asia." Journal of International Affairs 17.2 (1963): 113-125. online online review online review