Word: fairbanks
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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After war, Fairbank returned to Harvard to gather together a few ex-G.I.'s from the Pacific theater as students and make the small beginning in Asian regional studies. "Our motto was 'Quo Vadis,' Benjamin Schwartz, now professor of History and Government one of the ex-G.I.'s, says, "It was a risky venture. Before World War II the study of China was considered a risky enterprise. His (Fairbank's) hope at that time was that most of us would go into government." But instead they spread out to other universities, in fifteen years populating most...
...Fairbank proceeded to build Asian studies with habitual restlessness. According to legend, he rarely went to parties unless something useful was going to come of it. One professor remembers a Christmas party for the students and professors in China regional studies held at a Chinese restaurant. Everyone was enjoying themselves until Fairbank stood up, put a huge briefcase on the table, and said something like: "We are having a good time, but it would be a shame, with us together here, if we missed the opportunity to discuss some of our current problems and goals. Where exactly is regional studies...
...instead came a long white beard, which Fairbank put on, and then, his colleague says, he proceeded to deliver a speech couched in academic terms of the day but placed in such a context that "it was one of the bawdiest speeches I've heard in my life...
...sense of humor probably helped when Fairbank's name, along with that of many other American China specialists, was thrown into the cauldron of the Internal Security Subcommittee by a few former Communist agents. The charges against him, as against most, were false but inconvenient. After traveling all the way to the West Coast, he had to cancel a sabbatical to Japan when the American occupation army refused to clear him for entry. With some difficulty he was granted a hearing before the Senate subcommittee on Internal Security. Mindful of others who had waked in trusting only their own innocence...
...Fairbank emerged unbruised, partially because Harvard supported him. On the other hand, many of his friends, Vincent and Owen Lattimore among them, were left with severely damaged careers. Public discussion of China was also hurt. "T.V. was laying off," he says, "The country was sick of it. It was an uncomfortable subject...