'SMILIN' JACK' CLIFFORD

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000100850006-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 16, 1999
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: April 29, 1963
• Content Type: NSPR

SAN FRANCISCO,,CAL OR 29
EXAMINER
Q A D 9c v d For Release 1999/09/17 : CIA-
'3V
s.. 4429350
Front Edit Other
Page Page Page
CPYRGHT
Donald Stanley's Book Corner
"Smi)in"Jack' Clifford
Today's guest reviewer is Examiner
staffer Gebrge Murphy, a former student of
Father Clifford at Santa Clara.
HEN TH EVEERE, Cliff
mitofy prefect at the University- of Sant
Clara some years ago, he gained a nic -
name. We called him affectionately (an(
it must be admitted, somewhat irreveren -
ly) "Smilin' Jack.
He was husky, healthy, happy-and bri -
liant. He was short, stocky, smiling, an
tolerant of the peccadilloes of sophomore!.
He had a healthy shock of brown hail,
clear eyes, a probing mind and a quie ,
understated, but always extant strength
belief in his God and in his chosen way life.
When I. saw Smilin' Jack again, late i
1956, the smile was somewhat slower t
bloom, the hair had become white, and th
clear, piercing eyes looked out from b
hind steel-rimmed glasses. He was a tire
man.
He had spent three arduous, ,unbelie
able years` as a Chines
Communsts-and beat them at their ow
game:
In this book, John Clifford tells th
story of how he did it. His publisher say
on the dust jacket that "this is a prime
on resistance to brainwashing." And that'
pretty much what it is,.
Father Clifford, a San. Franciscan (hi
brother, Harty, is with the FBI office here)
tells of his arrest and, without trial, hi
imr,risonment, and the splendid Machia
an subtleties of the Communist metho(
of `hsi-nao" which means "wash th
he was helped-such as in th
IN THE PRESENCE OF MY ENEMIES. By John
W. Clifford, S. J. W. W. Norton Co.; 239 pages;
$4.50, -
Qaxu A0 IT
from the "Domini Corporation, satos.
The Domini Mfp-is, in
fact, the Jesuit seminary at Los Gatos, and
the "vitamins" were smuggled Communion
wafers, allowing father Clifford to say
Mass while in prison.)
How he analyzes the hsi-nao process is
a valuable psychological documefft. Smilin'
Jack has, in short, written himself a pretty
fine book, one that can be read with in-
terest by many and varied members of our
society..
And there's an epilogue the book doesn't
tell, but which is characteristic of the
author:
After the three harrowing years in the
Chinese prisons, he was released (even on
the last day, he refused to sign release
papers and the Communists literally threw
him out of prison in frustration) and came
back to San Francisco to rest.
In 1958 he got on a ship and headed for
Formosa, just across the straits from his
former prison. InTaipei he is now a pro-
fessor of philosophy at the National Taiwan
University and the Provincial Normal Uni-
versity.
When he was getting on the boat, .hat
day in 1958, somebody said: "Father, why
are you going back to the Orient?"
The :gray-haired, bespectacled priest
became for that moment the Smilin' Jack
of Santa Clara days, and the smile was
quick. if said, as though it were just a
simple Mine: "It's my job."
FOIAb3b
CPYRGHT
Approved For Release 1999/09/17 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000100850006-5