McHugh, J. M. (James Marshall), 1899-

James M. McHugh was born in Nevada, Missouri, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1922. Following training at Quantico he went to China in 1923 to study the country and its language. His father-in-law, Jacob Gould Schurman, who was president of Cornell University from 1892-1920, was then American minister to China. McHugh authored a standard textbook on China and a Chinese-English dictionary which were used by the British and American embassies and armed forces in China until the Japanese took over Shanghai.

McHugh spent over twenty years in China, where he served as intelligence officer for the 4th Marines and U.S. Asiatic Fleet, Shanghai, from 1933-1935, then became special Assistant Naval Attache, American Embassy at Nanking, Hankow, and Chungking. He was Naval Attache and Naval Attache for Air from 1940-1943, serving as a special representative of Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, with whom he was a close friend.

For his work in this capacity he was later awarded the Legion of Merit. He was officer in charge of the Far East Secret Intelligence and served on the staff of the Fifth Amphibious Corps (G-5), then was sent to Guam in 1944 to help plan the attack on Iwo Jima. An attack of malaria led to his recall in 1943; after hospitalization he was assigned to Navy Department, to one of the forerunners of the present Central Intelligence Agency.

Following retirement in February 1946, he became an economic consultant for several corporations having interest in the Far East, including Jardine, Matheson & Co. (Hong Kong), and Balfour, Guthrie & Co. (New York).

From the description of James M. McHugh papers, 1930-1965. (Cornell University Library). WorldCat record id: 64687347