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Currently in production, CIA IN TIBET is an inside look at the CIA’s covert backing of Tibet’s guerrilla war with China in the 50s and 60s. This documentary project is being produced by the daughter of a former CIA case officer who worked on the Tibetan Task Force in India and Nepal. Combined with rare archival and personal footage, her father’s never-before-told stories mix with other key player’s accounts and diverse perspectives in this timely examination of a seminal event in Tibet’s continuing struggle for independence from China.
* 1 feature-length documentary
* video blog and website photo galleries
From the beginnings of the Communist Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1950, to the end of the CIA’s operation in 1972, CIA IN TIBET recounts an epic era where an estimated 1.2 million Tibetans died in the Resistance, and seeks to reveal how the events of the past have shaped the ongoing issues today.
* How did the Tibetan resistance deal with with the conflict between their Buddhist belief in non-violence, and the need to fight for their country’s freedom?
* From top-secret training in guerrilla warfare, to midnight overflights dropping weapons, supplies, and Tibetan freedom fighters into Chinese-occupied Tibet, what finally brought an end to the CIA’s 15 year operation?
* What impact did the CIA ultimately have in Tibet’s ongoing mission to be an independent nation?
www.KefiBlog.com
Mikel Dunham spent 7 years collecting first hand stories from the Tibetan fighters in the resistance against the Chinese, as well as former CIA officers who worked on the Tibetan Task Force. His book “Buddha’s Warriors” was the first one I read while researching the CIA’s operation in Tibet, and he was one of the first people I interviewed. In acknowledgment of the 51st anniversary of the Tibetan National Uprising Day, here’s a clip from my interview with Mikel that gives a vivid retrospective of March 10, 1959, and sets the tone of the times leading up to it.
Unfortunately my archival footage is non-existent when it come to photographs and film that depicts the actual day. I used film of the Dalai Lama, from the CIA collection at the National Archives (which also makes is public domain so I can show it here for free). The library’s notes don’t say who shot the film, but it’s most likely Tibetan CIA trainees who were taught to shoot film to gather intelligence for the CIA.
Duration : 0:2:35