Secret Agent Tolstoy

In the early days of the Pacific Theater in World War II, the Allies had a difficult problem in the mountainous country between India and China.  The Chinese armies of Chiang Kai-Shek were fighting the Japanese but were desperate for supplies.  Early in the war, Japan had captured Shanghai from the British, then advanced and cut off the vital Burma Road that brought supplies from India to China over land.

The Allies began ferrying supplies by air over the Himalayas—doing what pilots called “flying the hump”—a dangerous mission that cost the lives of many pilots.  If you are interested in reading more about the pilots who took on such missions, I would suggest reading God is My Co-Pilot by General Robert L. Scott.  Actually, I would recommend reading anything written by General Scott. 

There was talk about finding a land route through Tibet, but the State Department strenuously objected.  Keeping China as an ally was an important war goal and China had territorial disputes with Tibet.  The Army sided with the State Department, so the matter was closed—there would be no official overtures made to Tibet.

Luckily, there was an unofficial agency that could handle the job.  The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the war time spy shop, run by Colonel ‘Wild Bill’ Donovan, that answered only to the President of the United States (much to the annoyance of both the State Department and J. Edgar Hoover).  Hoover thought that his FBI could handle all the covert needs of the country and the State Department didn’t believe in spies.  

It appears that President Roosevelt didn’t really trust Hoover, so he set up his own covert shop.  After the war, Hoover got revenge by convincing President Truman to shut down the OSS.  By 1947, Truman realized that some form of intelligence gathering agency was needed and most of the former OSS agents would run the new Central Intelligence Agency.

The OSS sent two special agents on a secret mission to Tibet to try and survey a new overland route to China.  At the time, Tibet was so remote that few Westerners had any experience there, and the United States had no direct contact with the government.  So the two special agents had to be skilled diplomats, explorers, surveyors, and military leaders.  Accordingly, the OSS sent Major Count Ilya Tolstoy, the grandson of Leo Tolstoy, and Captain Brook Dolan.

Both men had other qualifications beyond their OSS training.  Tolstoy (right) had served in the Russian Army during World War I, was a trained ichthyologist, had helped develop McKinley National Park in Alaska and, just a few years before the war, had set up a movie studio that specialized in underwater photography, particularly with dolphins.  Today, we call that place Marineland.

Brooke Dolan (second from left) had already completed two expeditions to Eastern Tibet and Western China, collecting animal and bird specimens.  He was the first Westerner to bring a panda out of China.

Since no passport or visa into the country was available, the only official authorization the two men could carry was a personal letter from President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the new Dalai Lama, the leader of the Buddhist faith and the head of the Tibetan government.  When the two agents arrived in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, they were to ask permission to cross Tibet into China.  

The two men left India in September 1942 and began the climb up the rugged mountainous trail up to Lhasa.  The caravan consisted of 33 mules and 15 native guides and took three days to complete.  Luckily, they were welcomed into the capitol, and presented not only the president’s letter, but a $2,800 Phillipe Patek gold pocket watch to the Dalai Lama.  I’m not sure how much the Dalai Lama appreciated the watch, even if it did tell the day of the week and the phases of the moon, since the spiritual leader was only seven years old at the time.

The Tibetan leaders were only too happy to grant permission, knowing that such recognition from the United States added credence to their territorial claims.  All that was asked of the United States was for the gift of long-range radio equipment.  When the request was forwarded back to the US Army, it was shocked to learn of the expedition.

After the war, there was some confusion about whether or not the US government had promised to support the cause of Tibetan independence.  The Tibetans were hardly alone in this regard:  several countries seemed to gotten the impression during the war that America had traded support in the war against Japan for America’s future support for their independence.  The people of Vietnam certainly believed that we had promised to help end French colonialism.  After the war, President Truman evidently decided that French assistance against the Russians was more important than a free Vietnam.  Truman was probably wrong about that, since as General Norman Schwarzkopf supposedly said (but probably didn’t), “Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordion.”

For three months, the two explorers surveyed mountain passes and followed rugged trails, mapping a route to China.  It was so cold in the highest mountains that they drank 40-50 cups of hot tea daily to keep warm.  The two OSS agents traveled along the same ancient trails that have been used for centuries to transport tea, silk, musk, and jade.

Their secret mission completed, the two men submitted their maps to the Allies…who quickly decided that the trail was so rugged, so long, and at such a high altitude that it was better simply to keep flying those cargo planes over the mountains.

When the Dalai Lama visited President Obama in Washington, in 2016, he was carrying that gift pocket watch.