| Author's Note | xi |
| Preface | xiii |
Part 1 | Why They Went | 1 |
| Shegar-Hunglung, Tibet, April 29, 1950 | 3 |
| An Atomic Monopoly, An Atomic Peace, 1945 to 1949 | 8 |
| Strategic Services Unit, HQ, Peking, March 5, 1946 | 10 |
| U.S. Embassy, Nanking, March 1946 | 18 |
| Alphabet Soup, 1946-1947 | 22 |
| The American Consulate, Tihwa, March 25, 1946 | 23 |
| Murray Hill, 1943-1950 | 24 |
| Koktogai, ETR, May 15, 1946 | 25 |
| At the Chingil River Ford, April 10, 1947 | 27 |
| The White House and the Potala, March 1947 | 29 |
| Osman Bator, Douglas Mackiernan, and Uranium, May and June 1947 | 30 |
| Pegge Lyons and Douglas Mackiernan, Tihwa, Sinkiang, July and August 1947 | 35 |
| CIA Headquarters, Washington, D.C., July 1947 | 41 |
| The AEC and AFSWP, July 1947 | 43 |
| Pegge and Doug, Shanghai and Tihwa, September 1947 | 44 |
| The U.S. Army Advisory Group HQ, Nanking, China, September 25, 1947 | 46 |
| Shanghai to Peking, September 25-29, 1947 | 47 |
| USS President Polk, off the China Coast, October 4, 1947 | 49 |
| Bessac's Cover, Peking, China, October 15, 1947 | 51 |
| The Crag Hotel, Penang, Malaysia, October 21, 1947 | 53 |
| Frank Bessac and Prince De, Peking, China, October 1947 | 55 |
| The Green Lantern, January to August 1948 | 57 |
| Douglas Mackiernan and Atomic Explosions, 1948 to March 10, 1949 | 69 |
| Department of State, Washington D.C., April 19, 1949 | 74 |
| The Raid on the U-2 Mine, Sinkiang and the ETR, April or May 1949 | 76 |
| Hawaii, June 1, 1996 | 78 |
| The Russian Atomic Test Site, Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan, August 29, 1949 | 81 |
Part 2 | The Journey to Tibet | 91 |
| Tibet, Summer of 1949 | 93 |
| Dingyuanying, Inner Mongolia, August 1949 | 97 |
| Hami to Tihwa, Sinkiang, September 9, 1949 | 103 |
| Tihwa-Urumchi, the People's Republic of China, September 26, 1949 | 107 |
| Leaving Tihwa, September 27, 1949 | 112 |
| Lake Barkol, with the Kazak Horde of Osman Bator, October 29, 1949 | 115 |
| The White House, October 31, 1949 | 120 |
| Fairfax, California, November 1949 | 121 |
| Around the Taklamakan Desert, October 30-November 29, 1949 | 124 |
| Washington, D.C., November and December 1949 | 127 |
| The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, Dharamsala, India, December 1, 1994 | 131 |
| Dean Acheson, January 12, 1950 | 132 |
| Shanghai, the People's Republic of China, January 30, 1950 | 134 |
| Fairfax, California, January 30 and 31, 1950 | 135 |
| Peking and Washington, D.C., January 20, 1950 | 140 |
| Senator McCarthy's Speech, Wheeling, West Virginia, February 9, 1950 | 142 |
| Acheson Meets Lowell Thomas, February 17, 1950 | 144 |
| Winter at Timurlik, November 29, 1949, to March 20, 1950 | 145 |
| A Letter to Tibet, State-CIA Relations, March 30, 1950 | 153 |
| McCarthy and Lattimore, Washington, D.C., April 1950 | 156 |
| Across the Changthang, March and April 1950 | 158 |
| Morning, April 29, 1950 | 169 |
| Shegar-Hunglung, Tibet, April 29, 1950 | 171 |
| When They Heard Mackiernan Was Dead | 177 |
Part 3 | Through Tibet and Home Again | 181 |
| Nomads and Grenades, April 30 and May 1, 1950 | 183 |
| The Arrow Letter, Tibet, May 1, 1950 | 185 |
| The U.S. Embassy, New Delhi, India, May 2, 1950 | 187 |
| Shentsa Dzong, Tibet, May 6, 1950 | 188 |
| Shentsa Dzong, Tibet, May 11, 1950 | 191 |
| Trip to Lhasa, May and June 1950 | 193 |
| Tibet, Taiwan, and China, Spring 1950 | 197 |
| Lhasa, Tibet, June 11, 1950 | 199 |
| Mr. Latrash's Lhasa "Assets," Calcutta and Lhasa, Winter and Spring 1949-1950 | 206 |
| The Fourteenth Dalai Lama, "A U.S. Agent Passing Through Lhasa," December 1, 1994 | 209 |
| Fairfax, California, June 11, 1950 | 211 |
| Meeting the Dalai Lama, Lhasa, Tibet, June 1950 | 212 |
| Dinner at Tride Lingka, Lhasa, Tibet, June 15, 1950 | 215 |
| The Tibetan Foreign Bureau, Lhasa, Tibet, June 16, 1950 | 219 |
| Carving Crosses, Lhasa, Tibet, July 30, 1950 | 227 |
| The Flogging, Lhasa, Tibet, July 1950 | 229 |
| The Potala, Lhasa, Tibet, July 1950 | 230 |
| Last Days in Lhasa, Late July 1950 | 233 |
| Mackiernan's Death Announced, July 29, 1950 | 238 |
| Minister Shakabpa Visits the U.S. Consulate, Calcutta, India, August 4, 1950 | 241 |
| The Earthquake, August 15, 1950 | 242 |
| Latrash and Bessac, Calcutta, India, August 29, 1950 | 244 |
| The U.S. Embassy, New Delhi, India, August 30-September 22, 1950 | 246 |
| Calcutta, India, September 15, 1950 | 247 |
| Mrs. Douglas Mackiernan Goes to Washington, October 4, 1950 | 248 |
| Bessac in Washington, D.C., October 1950 | 249 |
| The State Department, Washington, D.C., October 18, 1950 | 252 |
| Bethesda, Maryland, and Drukha Monastery, October 19, 1950 | 255 |
| Washington, D.C., October 27 and 28, 1950 | 260 |
| Pegge and John, First Meeting, Washington, D.C., November 8, 1950 | 261 |
| Life Magazine, November 13, 1950 | 262 |
| Pegge and John, Washington, D.C., November 24, 1950 | 263 |
| Tibet, Winter 1950-1951 | 264 |
| Winter of the Cold War, Washington, D.C., 1950-1951 | 270 |
| Tihwa, Xinjiang, the People's Republic of China, April 29, 1951 | 273 |
| Epilogue: Zvansov, Bessac, Mackiernan, and Tibet | 274 |
| Notes | 289 |
| Bibliography | 335 |
| Acknowledgments | 345 |
| Index | 351 |