Cover Copy

Advance praise for Freeing Tibet:

“This remarkable panoptic history of the Tibetan struggle, from its Cold War origins to global cause célèbre, rekindles optimism. Freeing Tibet is a call to action for concerned people everywhere to use the leverage of global economic interdependence to achieve freedom and democracy for Tibet and China. This is the greatest civil rights cause of the 21st century.”

— Dr. John McLaughlin, Executive Producer and host, The McLaughlin Group

“Freeing Tibet tells the story of how CIA ‘meddling’ in China’s ‘internal affairs’ not only kept His Holiness and His Message from disappearing without a trace in March 1959, but set in motion the chain of events which gave global prominence to the cause of a Free Tibet.”

— Robert H. Campbell, 27-year veteran of the CIA’s Clandestine Service

“The more we learn about Tibet, the beauty of her people and their culture, and the agony of her brutal subjugation under Chinese occupation, the more we feel committed to ‘Freeing Tibet’—and we learn a lot from John and Elizabeth Roberts in this compelling book. The Tibetan people are the still not yet fully appreciated heroes of one of the great struggles for freedom of our time—especially great because of its overriding commitment to maintain the exacting discipline of nonviolence. The Buddhist principle of nonviolence is not merely a blind rush to martyrdom, but is also pragmatic. Forceful self-defense is justified only if it prevents more violence than it employs. The Roberts’ tale gives a detailed and moving account of the Tibetan warriors who tried to defend their homes and families and monasteries, saved the Dalai Lama from capture by the Chinese military, then ignored his teaching and took up arms in a tragically doomed guerrilla war, and ultimately sacrificed their lives for their country. [The authors] further describe how the Dalai Lama since has won the hearts of the world’s people for the cause of Tibet, even though the govern­ments still have not found the insight and resolve to get the leaders of China to change their genocidal policy into the more realistic live and let live appropriate for this global century. Freeing Tibet is an absorbing read, and I heartily recommend it to all those who will never give up on their determination to see peace and justice prevail in our world.”

— Robert A. F. Thurman,

Jey Tsong Khapa Professor of Buddhist Studies, Columbia University;

President, Tibet House U.S., author of Why the Dalai Lama Matters