John Paton Davies Jr., 91, a Foreign Service officer whose candid appraisal favoring American support for Communist over Nationalist forces in China in the 1940s made him one of the most prominent people purged from the State Department in the Red-hunting 1950s, died Dec. 23 of multiple organ failure at his home in Asheville, N.C.

As the Cold War began, with accusations rampant about "who lost China" to Mao Zedong's Communists in 1949, Mr. Davies was among many State Department figures, including John Stewart Service, John Carter Vincent and Oliver Edmund Clubb, to undergo loyalty hearings.

None of the nine security probes against him for perjury and other charges between 1948 and 1954 gave credence to the accusation of Mr. Davies's disloyalty. But after blistering criticism from Sens. Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis.) and Patrick A. McCarran (D-Nev.), Secretary of State John Foster Dulles asked Mr. Davies to resign. Mr. Davies would not leave, believing that to do so would validate the accusations, and Dulles fired him for questionable "judgment, discretion and reliability."

Questions first had been raised about Mr. Davies's conduct because his State Department reports advised a more nuanced approach to communism in China than was politically palatable. In Washington, the prominent perception of communism was as a monolith.

Predicting Communist victories over the Nationalist Army of Chiang Kai-shek, whom Washington supported, Mr. Davies believed communication with Mao was necessary to prevent a combined Soviet and Chinese dominance. Communication, he believed, would preclude the two nations working against American interests in that region and throughout the world.

As political adviser on the staff of Gen. Joseph W. "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell during World War II, Mr. Davies believed Chiang and many of his supporters were corrupt and without the larger support of the country. When Mr. Davies proposed talks with Mao, who he believed was more organized and disciplined, his suggestion conflicted with the vehemently anti-Communist perspectives of the U.S. ambassador to China, Gen. Patrick J. Hurley, and other powerful political figures in Washington.

In many ways, Mr. Davies was an iconoclast, partly stemming from his childhood in China as the son of Baptist missionaries, an upbringing that gave him the critical perspective of an outsider with the broad cultural knowledge of a Chinese native.

Mr. Davies had been in the Foreign Service since 1931--in China since 1933--and worked under distinguished men such as Stilwell and diplomat George F. Kennan. Mr. Davies's last posting, however, was Peru, where he served as counselor and charge d'affaires at the embassy in Lima. Kennan said in an interview that the transfer to Peru was politically motivated.

"He was never one to cultivate favor with people just for ambitious reasons," Kennan said. "He was one of the finest observers of oriental countries that we ever had."

When Dulles fired him, Mr. Davies responded in a statement he had prepared in Peru after being summoned to Washington for what he predicted would be his dismissal. The statement was a rumination on responsibility and the dangers of disagreeing with popular policy.

"The safest thing for a bureaucrat to do in such a situation is to remain silent," he wrote. "Or, a foreign service officer can speak out about his misgivings and suggest alternative policies, knowing that he runs serious political risks in so doing. I spoke out."

After a decade in self-imposed exile in Peru and five years in Washington, Mr. Davies was exonerated in 1969 by the State Department.

John Paton (pronounced Payton) Davies Jr. was born in Szechuan province. For two years, he attended the classless Experimental College at the University of Wisconsin, which emphasized the study of civilization, before spending a year at Yenching University in China and graduating from Columbia University in 1931.

He arrived in China in 1933 and served with Stilwell, at the general's request, from 1942 to 1944. As first secretary at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow from 1945 to 1947, Mr. Davies was the resident China expert, working under chief of mission W. Averell Harriman and his deputy, Kennan.

Mr. Davies spent the next four years in Washington as a member of the State Department's policy-planning staff, of which Kennan was a director, and then as a member of the U.S. High Commission for Germany before being sent to Peru.

After his dismissal from State, Mr. Davies stayed in Peru for a decade, moving out of diplomatic quarters to more ascetic surroundings. With no formal training, he took up furniture design with his wife and ran a design business called Estilo. In 1962, a coffee table and a wood-and-leather chair, both with Asian and Peruvian design influences, each won the American Institute of Interior Designers' International Design Award.

By the time he moved back to Washington in 1964, Mr. Davies had completed his first book, about how the United States became involved in Vietnam, "Foreign and Other Affairs" (1964, W.W. Norton & Co.). He spent the next eight years on his second and final volume, "Dragon by the Tail: American, British, Japanese, and Russian Encounters With China and One Another" (1972, Norton).

He settled in Spain in the 1970s, writing newspaper articles and lecturing. Columnists such as Marquis Childs quoted him for his prescient views on Far East policy.

Childs would write in 1971: "Davies' crime was that he was right. He reported the truth as he saw it."

In 1972, David Halberstam included Mr. Davies's struggle with the State Department in the book "The Best and the Brightest."

In 1948, he received the Medal of Freedom for an event that had occurred four years earlier and was described in Eric Sevareid's book "Not So Wild a Dream." Mr. Davies and Sevareid were passengers on a plane flying from India to China when one of the plane's engines went out. The passengers parachuted out, landing in a jungle amid headhunters. Mr. Davies led them to safety.

A daughter, Megan Davies, said that her father occasionally would receive letters during the last two decades from students who heard about his experience in the Foreign Service and that he responded to them all. "He felt a responsibility to his place in history," she said.

Survivors include his wife of 57 years, former Washington Post society reporter Patricia Grady Davies, of Asheville, N.C.; six daughters, Patricia "Tiki" Davies of Washington, Alexandra "Sasha" Davies of White Plains, N.Y., Susan Davies of Chatham, N.Y., Jennifer Davies of Seattle, Megan Davies of New Orleans and Deborah Davies of London; a son, John Grady Davies, of Baton Rouge, La.; a brother; and 11 grandchildren.

JOHN PATON DAVIES, 91, a China expert at the State Department who was fired as a security risk during the McCarthy era but later regained clearance, died Thursday [Dec. 23] in Asheville, N.C. Davies was fired in 1954 after accusations by the late Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy that Davies had undermined U.S. policy and contributed to the Communist victory in China. He fought to clear his name and was granted security clearance from the State Department in 1969. Davies was born in China and served as a foreign service officer in China and politiacal adviser to Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, who headed U.S. forces in China, Burma and India during World War II. Davies also served as first secretary in charge of the political section at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow; as a member of the State Department's policy planning staff; with the U.S. High Commission for Germany; and as director of political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Germany.

WASHINGTON –– John Paton Davies, a China expert at the State Department who was fired as a security risk but later regained government clearance, died Thursday in Asheville, N.C. He was 91.

Davies, who grew up in China as the son of missionary parents, was let go in 1954 after accusations by the late Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy and others that Davies had undermined U.S. policy and contributed to the Communists victory in China.

Secretary of State John Foster Duller fired him in 1954 for "bad judgment" in forecasting the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces during China's civil war that ended in 1949.

After his dismissal, Davies wrote:
"When a foreign service officer concludes that a policy is likely to betray national interests ... the safest thing for a bureaucrat to do in such a situation is to remain silent. Or, a foreign service officer can speak out about his misgivings ... knowing he runs serious personal risks in so doing. I spoke out."

After a long fight to clear his name, Davies was again granted security clearance from the State Department in 1969. The review was requested after Davies was offered a job as a consultant on a disarmament research project.

Davies was born in China, attended Yenching University, served as a foreign service officer in China, and was political adviser to Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, who headed U.S. forces in China, Burma and India during World War II. He was awarded the Medal of Freedom following a parachute jump in the Burmese jungle.

"He grew up with China in his blood, with a kind of skeptical love for it, not a naive love for it," author David Halberstam wrote in "The Best and the Brightest."

Davies also served as first secretary in charge of the political section at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow; as a member of the State Department's policy planning staff; with the U.S. High Commission for Germany; and director of political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Germany.

CBS newsman Eric Sevareid once said of Davies: "I have known a great number of men. ... I have known none who seemed more the whole man, none more finished a civilized product in all a man should be – in modesty and thoughtfulness, in resourcefulness and steady strength of character."

Davies had a long post-government career as a consultant and a writer, particularly after the United States recognized China.

He is survived by his wife, Patricia Grady Davies, seven children and 11 grandchildren.

John Paton Davies

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) – John Paton Davies, a China expert at the State Department who was fired as a security risk during the McCarthy era but later regained clearance, died Thursday. He was 91.

Davies was fired in 1954 after accusations by the late Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy that Davies had undermined U.S. policy and contributed to the Communist victory in China.

He fought to clear his name and was granted security clearance from the State Department in 1969.

Davies was born in China and served as a foreign service officer in China and political adviser to Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell, who headed U.S. forces in China, Burma and India during World War II.

Davies also served as first secretary in charge of the political section at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow; as a member of the State Department's policy planning staff; with the U.S. High Commission for Germany; and as director of political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Germany.

Posted at 3:34 a.m. EST Friday, December 24, 1999

John Paton Davies, 91, a China expert at the State Department who was fired as a security risk but later regained government clearance, died yesterday in Asheville, N.C.

Davies, who grew up in China as the son of missionary parents, was let go in 1954 after accusations by the late Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy and others that Davies had undermined U.S. policy and contributed to the Communists' victory in China.

Secretary of State John Foster Duller fired him in 1954 for ``bad judgment'' in forecasting the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces during China's civil war that ended in 1949.

After a long fight to clear his name, Davies was again granted security clearance from the State Department in 1969. The review was requested after Davies was offered a job as a consultant on a disarmament research project.

The John Paton Davies Lecture Series, sponsored by the History Department, plays a visible and active role in community life. Recent presentations have included lectures on Frontier Deerfield, the Modern Civil Rights Movement, Artifacts and Family History and the Vietnam Conflict. Recent speakers have included professors from Amherst and Dartmouth Colleges, the State Department, the Secretary of the Navy and the Governor of New York.

ASHEVILLE -- Patricia Grady Davies, 80, died Sunday, May 28, 2000, of oral cancer.

Wife of diplomat and "Old China Hand," John P. Davies, she was born May 11, 1920, in Paris, France, to Lucrecia del Valle Grady and Henry F. Grady, later Assistant Secretary of State under Franklin D. Roosevelt and then Ambassador to Greece, Iran and India.

She and her husband moved to Asheville in 1978 where she helped establish WUNF, the public radio outlet at the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 1980. She produced classical music and news programming for several years with the station. During her tenure, she was particularly proud that WUNF made history by adding a regular program in the Cherokee language.

Her other volunteer activities in Asheville include being a member of the Concord Coalition and Life After Cancer, a support group for cancer survivors, where she did oral histories of other patients.

She grew up in San Francisco and attended the University of California at Berkley where she graduated at 20, summa cum laude. She then joined her parents in Washington, D.C., where she became a society reporter for The Washington Post, writing two columns including one entitled "Top Hats and Tiaras." She also was a disc jockey with a radio show called Melody Farm in Washington, D.C., for several years.

She married Davies in 1942 and then spent the better part of a year traveling via Argentina and South Africa to join him in India where he was General Joseph Stillwell's political advisor. While there, she worked in the intelligence offices of the China-Burma Theater. She traveled with her husband to other postings including Moscow, where her first child Sasha was the first All-American baby born in Soviet Russia." Other locations included Germany and Peru. While in Peru, his final Foreign Service posting, Davies was fired by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, the culmination of years of harassment by Senator Joe McCarthy. Throughout this ordeal, her resolute support allowed her husband to stand firm.

After his firing, the couple stayed in Peru where they established a furniture factory, Estilo, S.A., where together they designed monoprints using Inca motifs and furniture. The latter would win awards from the American Institute of Interior Designers.

They left Peru in 1964 to return to the United States with their family and from 1966 to 1970 she was a columnist for the Rome Daily American in Italy, with a weekly commentary from Washington, D.C., called Once Over Lightly.

Also in the late 1960's, she was a design consultant to William Pahlmann Associates of New York and the Washington, D.C., management consultant firm of Klein & Saks.

She and her husband moved the younger children, known as the "junior varsity," to Malaga, Spain, in 1972 where they lived, with interim moves to Paris, France, and Petersfield, England, until they returned to the United States.

She is survived by seven children, Sasha Davies of White Plains, N.Y., Tiki Davies of Washington, D.C., John Davies of Baton Rouge, La., Susan Davies of Chatham, N.Y., Jennifer Davies of Seattle, Wash., Deborah Davies of London, England, and Megan Davies of New Orleans, La.; one brother, John Westin Grady of Simi Valley, Calif.; and 11 grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her husband on Dec. 23, 1999, and two brothers, Reginald Grady of Hillsborough, Calif., and Henry Grady of San Francisco, Calif.

No services are planned.

Memorial contributions may be made to Life After Cancer-Pathways, 121 Sherwood Road, Asheville, NC 28803.

Groce Funeral Home on Patton Avenue is assisting the family.