Wade Anastasia Jere

Frank Bessac Wade Anastasia Jere

Publisher Marketing: Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Francis Bagnall Bessac 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, Besaac served with the Office of Strategic Services (O. S. S.) in Western China and Mongolia, and while escaping from Communist Chinese forces in 1950 on their way to Tibet, Bessac was part of a group mistakenly attacked by Tibetan forces in which Central Intelligence Agency spy Douglas Mackiernan was killed, making him the CIA's first agent killed in action. Bessac was born on January 13, 1922, in Lodi, California and earned his undergraduate degree at the University of the Pacific, where he majored in history. 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 China, where he served until 1947. He studied language at Fujen University in present-day Beijing after completing service with the O. S. S and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship.