据环球时报引述最新一期美国《福布斯》杂志披露，去年10月，素来对华强硬的美国国防部长拉姆斯菲尔德在访华时，曾私下对中国方面表示，希望中国帮助寻找一名美国间谍的下落───这位拉氏青年时代的好友于50年前在一场对中国的空中侦察活动中失踪。这个人究竟是谁？为何会让美国国防部长牵挂了50年之久？(chinesenewsnet.com)
曾与拉氏一起死里逃生，常借拉氏小屋幽会女友(
Navy Lt. James Brayton Deane Jr. poses for a portrait in uniform in 1956
这位神秘人物名叫小詹姆斯·B·迪恩，他在大学期间经同乡介绍，与拉姆斯菲尔德成为好友。1954年，他们一起进入海军接受飞行训练，迪恩成了拉氏的副驾驶。在拉氏的印象里，当时年仅24岁的迪恩身体强壮，诙谐幽默。拉氏称：“我们总是形影不离，他是我最好的朋友。”(chinesenewsnet.com)
有一次，两人共同驾机训练，飞机离地的一瞬间突然出现异常，迪恩立刻提醒拉氏，飞机右轮可能爆胎，建议立即驾机返回机场。发生故障的飞机在着陆时与地面发生剧烈摩擦，拉氏和迪恩握住操纵杆的手臂几乎因此失去知觉，但最终化险为夷。这次死里逃生的经历让两人的关系更进了一步。
那时，迪恩的女朋友贝弗莉·沙弗经常到基地与他相会。由于迪恩没有房子，所以沙弗一般都会临时住在拉氏家里。之后的两年时间里，拉姆斯菲尔德的小屋子成了迪恩和沙弗爱情进展的圣地，直到他们在1956年5月19日结为夫妻。然而迪恩和沙弗的幸福生活被美国的冷战政治打破，当年5月底，迪恩所在的部队移防到日本，小夫妻也一起搬到岩国海军航空站军营。从此以后，拉姆斯菲尔德就再也没有见过迪恩。(chinesenewsnet.com)
我战机夜战美侦察机，美间谍魂断浪岗山(
Navy pilot Lt. James B. Deane, Jr., and his wife Beverly pose for a photo at their home in Japan the day before he left on his last mission.
迪恩服役的海军第1电子战中队(VQ-1)绰号“全球守望者”，是美国老牌电子侦察部队，他们经常沿中国大陆、苏联以及朝鲜海岸线飞行，就近收集各种电子情报，有时为了诱使对方雷达或其他电子设备开机，飞行员甚至冒着被击落的危险闯入别国领空。(chinesenewsnet.com)
冷战开始后，美国为搜集中国军事情报，处心积虑对大陆纵深进行战略侦察，仅1951─1953年期间，美机侵犯中国领空就达3万多架次，严重威胁我国安全。当时中国空军的主力战机没有雷达，夜晚拦截时，只能靠地面雷达引导攻击，十分困难。为了寻求更好的侦察效果，美侦察机一般选在晴朗的月夜进行入侵，这倒给中国空军提供了利用劣势装备拦截敌机的可能。
1956年8月22日深夜，一架美国海军P4M-1Q型电子侦察机从台湾新竹机场起飞，偷偷摸摸接近大陆，机上16名成员中就包括迪恩。这架美机沿着S形路线飞行，擦着我国的领海线时进时出，多次闯入我领海线范围内，对我军事设施实行电子侦察，打算捞一把就溜。让迪恩等人万万没想到的是，他们的行踪早已落入了解放军雷达部队布下的天罗地网。中国飞行员张文逸奉命驾驶歼击机立即起飞拦截。虽然当晚是下弦月，影响到飞行员的视线，但由于地面雷达精确测定了美机的航向、高度和位置，张文逸很快在舟山附近上空发现目标，美侦察机却毫无察觉，迪恩一行已成瓮中之鳖。
地面上，空4军军长高厚良少将和南京军区空军司令员聂凤智中将也一直注视着雷达荧光屏。由于夜晚难以辨别机徽，再加上雷达探测距离有限，无法准确判断该机到底是从日本、韩国还是台湾飞来的，因此存在着它究竟是国民党军机还是美机的疑问。最后首长下定决心，只要该侦察机再次跨入我国领空就把它坚决消灭。(chinesenewsnet.com)
当这架飞机再一次窜入我衢山岛黄泽山上空时，高厚良果断地下令开炮攻击。张文逸驾机在短暂的几十秒钟内连续向美侦察机三次开炮，敌机拖着浓烟拼命地朝公海方向逃去，最后消失在舟山群岛东部浪岗山附近海域。这是美国海军第1电子战中队在冷战期间的第一批殉葬者。在整个冷战期间，这个中队共有47人丧生，其损失之惨重在美军中相当惊人。(chinesenewsnet.com)
周总理亲自修改新闻稿，解放军逼退美航母舰队
A Martin P4M-1Q Mercator similar to this one, carrying Lt. James B. Deane Jr. and 15 other men, was shot down near China in 1956.
由于空战发生在夜间，中国空军当时未能确认敌机的国别。为避免扩大事态，周恩来总理亲自修改了新华社的新闻稿：“新华社23日讯：本月23日零时后在上海东南海面上空发现蒋军飞机一架，窜入我马鞍列岛上空，我空军飞机当即起飞。蒋机继续窜入嵊泗列岛上空，与我机在衢山岛之黄泽山上空遭遇，被我击伤，敌机当即向东南方向逃去。”此文一不提“美机”二字，二点明“遭遇”是在“中国领土上空”，三交代“敌机当即向东南方向逃去”，任美国耍什么花样都找不出破绽。(chinesenewsnet.com)
在美国，P4M-1Q侦察机在中国领空失踪，立即引起一阵惊恐。8月25日，美国海军第7舰队司令普赖德中将率航母战斗群出现在中国东海海域，摆开挑战的架势，从3艘航母上起飞的200架飞机密布天空。面对危机，聂凤智命令只派几架正常巡逻的飞机，在绝对领空内巡逻，不要主动向美军攻击，静观事态变化。面对解放军的严阵以待，美舰队最终灰溜溜地撤走了。美国政府也不得不发表声明，承认飞机可能飞越了中国的岛屿，但又诡称中国空军的攻击是“不正当”的，要求中国承担这次事件的责任。这种无理要求立即遭到我国政府的严词拒绝。(chinesenewsnet.com)
为获得美军侵入我国的物证，1957年1月，我海军奉命开到浪岗山海域进行搜索，潜水员先后打捞出发动机、机翼、雷达仪器等美机残骸。不久，舟山渔民又用尼龙渔网捞起两具美军飞行员尸体，由于天气炎热怕尸体腐烂，渔民们便将尸体装在大缸里密封，运到上海交给部队。出于人道主义考虑，中方将美飞行员尸体交给英国驻沪领事馆接收。随后，那两个装尸体的大缸，从上海港装上了英国商船，海运至美国夏威夷。最后，加上美军自己搜到的两具尸体，美国只得到4具机组成员尸体，包括迪恩在内的其他12名机组成员下落不明。(chinesenewsnet.com)
苦寻间谍好友20载，拉氏不惜利用国防部长特权(chin
esenewsnet.com)
Donald Rumsfeld, also a Navy pilot at the time, considered Deane a friend. Rumsfeld's efforts to help Deane's wife learn his fate were private until now.
拉姆斯菲尔德却对迪恩的失踪一直耿耿于怀。1975年11月，他担任福特总统的国防部长，开始秘密调查迪恩的下落。当时美中两国才刚刚恢复官方交往，福特政府通用外交渠道，希望中国政府透露关于迪恩和其他失踪机组人员的信息。时任美国国务卿的基辛格在当年的备忘录中这样写道：“中国私底下告诉我们，他们没有找到任何尸体，也没有发现任何相关情况。”(chinesenewsnet.com)
20世纪90年代末，应拉姆斯菲尔德的要求，美海军前高级情报官员理查德·海弗再次调查了迪恩事件。但他还是得出一个悲观的结论：通过分析P4M-1Q侦察机的残骸可以证明，在坠机的一刹那，飞机是机头入水的，这是“难以让人生还的入水方式”，迪恩生还的概率“微乎其微”。拉姆斯菲尔德并不甘心，2005年10月的北京之行是他为此事寻找答案的最新努力。但中国方面经过细致调查，仍只能给予拉氏这样的回答：“我们没有发现什么。”
Lt. j.g. James Deane outside the bachelors' officers quarters at Naval flight school in Pensacola, Fla., in 1955.
WASHINGTON (May 6) - In August 1956 a newlywed Navy pilot, Lt. James B. Deane Jr., was shot out of the sky on a nighttime spy flight off the coast of China. Nearly half a century later, a famous friend found himself in Beijing with a chance to quietly press Chinese leaders for more cooperation in resolving Deane's fate.
The friend was Donald H. Rumsfeld, the defense secretary known for hardline views on communist China. He and Deane were fellow Navy fliers and became buddies while stationed together in Florida in 1954 and 1955.
Rumsfeld's personal connection to the Deane case is a coincidence of history not publicly reported until now.
The chief focus of Rumsfeld's visit to Beijing last October was his concern about China's military buildup. Privately, he also made a point of urging Chinese officials to look further into the Deane episode. Like other efforts he made on behalf of Deane's widow before becoming defense secretary, his urging yielded no new answers.
The Cold War case has been clouded in mystery and secrecy since the Martin P4M-1Q Mercator in which Deane and 15 other men were flying was shot down over the East China Sea shortly after midnight Aug. 23, 1956. Rumsfeld raised it while also seeking more Chinese openness on all cases of missing U.S. servicemen.
"I remember the good times with him and remember the sorrow of losing him," he said of his friend in an interview with The Associated Press.
China has acknowledged that its jet fighters attacked the Mercator as it scooped up electronic intelligence on military radars and other sensitive Chinese systems. But China repeatedly has denied knowing Deane's fate.
The remains of four crew members were recovered - two by the crew of a U.S. search vessel and two by China, which returned the bodies through British authorities in Shanghai. The other 12 were never found. Adding to the mystery were unconfirmed U.S. intelligence reports, in the months after the plane was shot down, that Deane and perhaps one other may have survived the crash and been taken to a Chinese hospital.
A March 4, 1957, report by the 6004th Air Intelligence Service Squadron said two survivors of the Mercator attack had been moved in late November to the residence of a Chinese government official. Identifying information for one "appears to fit the description of Lieutenant (junior grade) James Brayton Deane, Jr.," said the report, which was declassified in 1993.
The Rumsfeld-Deane link is the only known instance of a secretary of defense, whose official duties include overseeing U.S. government efforts to account for missing-in-action servicemen, having a personal link to an MIA involving China. It is a coincidence that Rumsfeld has kept out of the public spotlight in deference to Deane's widow, Dr. Beverly Deane Shaver, who until now had pursued the matter strictly in private.
Now Shaver is going public, eager to express her gratitude for Rumsfeld's support and correct what she believes has been a false U.S. government characterization of her first husband's fate.
"He was declared missing, when I'm 99.9 percent certain he was not. He was alive," she said in a telephone interview from her home in suburban Phoenix. "It almost makes a person's life a lie, and that really bothered me."
Deane was 24 years old.
"He was a big man, physically, and had a good smile and enjoyed life," Rumsfeld said in the interview. "As an aviator he was a very serious person. He was a fine, enjoyable person to be around."
A year after the plane was shot down, the Navy told Shaver that Deane was presumed dead, based on an absence of evidence that he was alive. Shaver, however, now feels she has seen enough evidence - including declassified intelligence reports - to conclude that he likely survived the attack, if not a subsequent detention.
附二、美国海军网纪录损伤人员名单：
22 AUG 56 - P4M-1Q Mercator Buno 124362, staging from Iwakuni, Japan.
Squadron VQ-1. Shot down off Wenchai, China.
Fatalities:
Ltjg. James B. Deane,
Ltjg. Francis A. Flood,Jr,
Lcdr. Milton Hutchinson,
Lcdr. James W. Ponsford,
AT2 Donald Wayne Barber,
AO2 Warren Edgar Caron,
AT3 Jack Albert Curtis,
AT1 William Frederick Haskins,
AO3 William Michael Humbert,
AD1 H.E. Lounsbury,
AT1 Albert Perry Mattin,
AT2 Carl Edwin Messinger,
AE2 Wallace Powell,
AT3 Donald Eugene Sprinkle,
AT2 Leonard Strykowski,
AD3 Lloyd Lewayne Young.
