“This particularly adventuresome and resourceful CIA officer should have been remembered from his death in 1950 as a hero and inspiration to generations of CIA operations officers. Instead, he was simply forgotten, even within the Far East (later East Asia) division. His own division chief at the time of Mackiernan’s death, in writing up a classified history of relevant operations 20 years later, mentions him only in passing — and gets both his name and his date of death wrong.”
CIA Historian Nicholas Dujmovic
Amnesia to Anamnesis
Commemoration of the Dead at CIA
(September 2008)
April 29, 2026 — Douglas Seymour Mackiernan (April 25, 1913 — April 29, 1950) was the first officer of the Central Intelligence Agency to be killed in the line of duty. Mackiernan was working in China under cover of the State Department. While trying to escape from China, he was shot, and beheaded, by Tibetan border guards. To this day, no attempts have been made to find and repatriate his remains. Follow us on Twitter: @Intel_Today
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