Frank Bessac

Francis Bagnall Bessac (pronounced bih-ZAK; January 13, 1922 – December 6, 2010) was an American anthropologist who spent much of his life teaching the subject at the University of Montana, where he was appointed to the faculty in 1965. During the years toward the end of and immediately following World War II, Bessac served with the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S.) and the US State Department in Western China and Mongolia. During their escape from Communist Chinese forces to Tibet in 1950, Bessac was part of a group mistakenly attacked by Tibetan forces in which Central Intelligence Agency spy Douglas Mackiernan was killed, making Mackiernan the CIA's first agent killed in action.

Biography

Bessac was born on January 13, 1922, in Lodi, California and earned his undergraduate degree at the College of the Pacific, where he majored in history. He received a Master of Arts from the University of California, Berkeley and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in Anthropology. At COP, he was friends with Dave Brubeck, a pioneer of jazz music and he played tackle for football coach Amos Alonzo Stagg.

He enlisted in the United States Army during World War II. After studying Chinese language at Cornell University, Bessac was sent by the O.S.S. to Kunming, China, as a paratrooper, where he served until 1947. He then worked with the O.S.S. and the United States Department of State, finalizing the surrender of Japan and providing relief aid to Mongols. After completing service with the O.S.S., he studied language at Fujen University in present-day Beijing and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship.Weber, Bruce
"Frank Bessac, Scholar and Adventurer, Dies at 88"
''The New York Times'', December 25, 2010. Accessed December 26, 2010.

The CIA hired him when it was formed in 1947, but Bessac left after realizing that the covert role the agency wanted him to fill would prevent him from further pursuing his studies of Mongolia.Staff
"Frank Bessac: Frank Bessac, who died on December 6 aged 88, was one of two survivors of an epic and ill-fated trip led by the CIA in the early days of the Cold War which took him from the borders of Mongolia to the Tibetan capital Lhasa amid Great Game-style efforts to stymie communists both in China and in Russia."
''The Daily Telegraph'', December 21, 2010. Accessed December 26, 2010. In the Gobi Desert studying anthropology in Inner Mongolia, Bessac was forced to flee in the wake of advancing Chinese Communist forces and embarked on a journey of to Tihwa (now known as Ürümqi) in Second East Turkestan Republic or Xinjiang Province, Republic of China and from there through Tibet and across the Himalayas to India.

After crossing the Changtang, Bessac's group was mistakenly attacked by a group of Tibetan border guards, who shot and killed three members of his group before Bessac ran towards the soldiers while carrying a white flag. Among the dead was Vice Counsel and CIA agent Douglas Mackiernan, who had monitored actions by the Soviet Union in the area around the border between East Turkestan and the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, near the location where the Soviets had conducted their initial nuclear bomb test in August 1949. The Tibetan troops who had been involved in the attack that led to Mackiernan's death were convicted by a military court in Lhasa and sentenced to mutilation, with the leader of the group "to have his nose and both ears cut off", though after Bessac intervened for leniency, the punishment was changed so that the leader received 200 lashes and the other members of the patrol were also lashed.Bessac, Frank; as told to Burke, James
"These Tibetans Killed an American and Get the Lash for it"
''Life (magazine)'', November 13, 1950. Accessed December 26, 2010.

After he arrived back in the United States, the imperial Chinese had invaded Tibet. Bessac enrolled at University of California, Berkeley and married a fellow graduate student, Susanne Leppmann. He completed his doctorate at the University of Wisconsin–Madison following field research in Taiwan on land reform. After a few years at Lawrence University, Bessac joined the faculty of University of Montana. Dr. Bessac had severe closed angle glaucoma that rendered him almost completely blind in his later years. He died at the age of 88 on December 6, 2010, in Missoula, Montana, due to a stroke. He was survived by Susanne, as well as by four daughters, a son, eight grandchildren and two step-grandchildren.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bessac, Frank
1922 births
2010 deaths
20th-century American anthropologists
Cornell University alumni
Lawrence University faculty
People from Lodi, California
People from Missoula, Montana
People of the Office of Strategic Services
University of Montana faculty
University of the Pacific (United States) alumni
United States Army personnel of World War II
American expatriates in China
American expatriates in Mongolia