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Cordwainer Smith, Paul Linebarger
Historical Figure
Nationality: United States
Year of Birth: 1913
Year of Death: 1966
Cause of Death: Heart attack
Religion: Episcopalianism
Occupation: Author of Fiction, Author of Non-Fiction, Poet, educator, psychologist
Spouse: Margaret Snow (divorced 1949)
Military Branch: United States Army (World War II, Korean War)

Genevieve Collins

Fictional Appearances:
The Hot War
POD: November, 1950
Appearance(s): Bombs Away
Type of Appearance: Contemporary reference
Military Branch: US Army (World War III)

Cordwainer Smith was the pen-name used by American author Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger (July 11, 1913 – August 6, 1966) for his science fiction works. Linebarger was a noted East Asia scholar and expert in psychological warfare. Linebarger also employed the literary pseudonyms "Carmichael Smith" (for his political thriller Atomsk), "Anthony Bearden" (for his poetry) and "Felix C. Forrest" (for the novels Ria and Carola). He died of a heart attack in 1966 at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center in Baltimore, Maryland, at age 53.

In addition to his impressive bibliography, Linebarger had extensive ties to China, counting Sun Yat-Sen as his godfather, and Chiang Kai-Shek as a fairly close friend in adulthood. In 1948, he published the non-fiction work Psychological Warfare. He advised the U.S. military during the Korean War.

Cordwainer Smith in The Hot War[]

After the Korean War became part of World War III in 1951, a psy-ops colonel named Linebarger, an officer with substantial clout and fluency in Chinese, created a program for American troops to broadcast via loudspeaker at the Chinese and North Korean troops across no-man's land. The program used the Chinese words for "love" and "virtue" and "humanity", which when taken together also sounded like the English words for "I surrender", allowing the Reds to surrender without losing face.[1]

References[]

  1. Bombs Away, pgs. 311-315, ebook.
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