The riveting story of the longest-held American prisoner-of-war
Jack Downey, a CIA agent held in China for two decades, offers a unique lens on prisoner swaps
Detainees are often prisoners of policy. The recent swap between Western countries and Russia, which led to the liberation of Evan Gershkovich, a journalist for the Wall Street Journal, and others, is just the latest example of how single lives can be subject to the disposition of dictators and the persuasiveness of presidents.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “The CIA’s Rip van Winkle”
Culture September 14th 2024
- The information wars are about to get worse, Yuval Noah Harari argues
- Why many French have come to like “Emily in Paris”
- Paul Gauguin is an artist ripe for cancellation
- The riveting story of the longest-held American prisoner-of-war
- “The Perfect Couple” and the new map of Moneyland
- Tabloids are about more than trashy headlines
From the September 14th 2024 edition
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