It's June 5th. This day in 1943, the United States is in the process of deporting Qian Xuesen, a Chinese aerospace engineer who had lived in the US for decades and contributed significantly to WWII-era scientific research.

Jody, NIki, and Kellie discuss how Qian came to the U.S. in the first place, rose the scientific and political ranks -- but then got caught up in larger geopolitical fears about Chinese communism.

Sign up for our newsletter! Get your hands on This Day merch!

Find out more at thisdaypod.com

This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.

If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

UFC Champion Cris Cyborg