The U. S. Crusade in China, 1938-1945
About this book
Torn between Japanese aggression and an increasingly bloody civil war, China presented a confusing and troubling picture to American policymakers between 1938 and the end of World War II. this book tells of the Americans who came to China, openly and in secret, during those years, and of their role in the ultimate U.S. decision to spurn Chinese Communist overtures of friendship and throw greater support to the sinking regime of Chiang Kai-shek.Michael Schaller's colorful account demonstrates that the sudden upsurge of U.S. interest in Chinese politics plunged the United States into a situation that few Americans understood. The U.S. mission in China, which began as an attempt to bolster Chiang's Kuomintang in its fight against the Japanese quickly became a tangle of conflicting personalities and unclear political motivations.Schaller shows that the diplomacy of Presidents Roosevelt and Truman both misperceived and failed to respond to the rapid shifts of power within China. Largely ignorant of the nature of Chinese politics, they saw the civil war as a contest between Soviet-inspired revolution and a more tolerable form of nationalism--an attitude that persisted despite Mao Tse-tung's gathering strength and the obvious disorganization and corruption of Chiang's regime. Competitive groups of American diplomatic and military officials--including General Joseph Stilwell, who called Chiang "a grasping, bigoted, ungrateful little rattlesnake"--sought to salvage American influence by forging tactical alliances with factions in the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party.An important part of the U.S. Crusade in China, 1938-1945 is the detailed account of American covert operations in wartime China. Schaller details American schemes to use China as a base for air attacks on Japan--long before Pearl Harbor and official U.S. entry into the Pacific War. He recounts elaborate American plans to assassinate Chiang and to establish a more congenial government in China. And Schaller tells the fascinating story of the shadowy Naval Group China (later known as SACO, the Sino-American Cooperative Organization), which provided covert assistance to Chiang while thwarting the efforts of other US. intelligence organizations to establish communications with Mao.Schaller shows that these "private" foreign policies had a distorted effect on the rivalry among Chinese to win Washington's favor and support. These covert operations led to increased U.S. support for Chiang--an ill-informed decision which forced the United States into a battle for the control of Asia that still continues.