US involvement in East Asia in the Yan’an Period

How the US attempted to choose the outcome of the civil war even as world war raged is an interesting side story.

Militarily, there seemed little reason to support the GMD. As Chongqing was being bombed in the late 30s and early 40s, US general Joseph Stilwell was commanding some of the GMD forces in China. He was known to have great respect for the fighting spirit of the GMD enlisted men but to have little belief in the guts or moral fibre of the GMD generals. He evidently considered they were procrastinators, soft and probably corrupt. Meanwhile the GMD’s large contingents of conscript troops were sometimes given mouldy rice with sand in it and insufficient clothing and were largely literally tied together in groups to prevent their mass desertion while the generals tended to live ‘high on the hog’, according to at least one source.

Stilwell finally demanded changes. He eventually came to the conclusion that it was in US interests to engage in dialogue with Yan’an and sent a ‘Dixie mission’ there in 1944 named for being seen as a mission to the rebels (an allusion to the American Civil War ‘Dixie’ southern rebel side). Jiang, realising his attitude, demanded that Stilwell be removed and he was soon recalled and replaced by General Wedermeyer.

The Dixie embassy meanwhile was treated well as they dwelt in Yan’an for a year, watching manoeuvres and speaking to the leadership. One of the mission members recalls Mao as being not very charismatic but very forthright and clearly in command. He once remarked “when Mao spoke, no dog barked”.

General Eisenhower sought the reformation of the GMD/CCP alliance and sent Major General Patrick Hurley to negotiate with both sides. Hurley’s general attitude to Mao Zedong may be gauged by his habit of referring to him in a play on words as “moose dung”. Historians now understand that he was ‘at sea’ in the complex (and foreign to him) social and political environment. Among other things, he was unable to tell some of the Chinese leaders apart.

Meanwhile, some US analysts in China were reporting to the US government that not only was it likely the CCP would win the war against the Japanese virtually single-handedly, they would later likely also win the war against the GMD.

Diplomatically, the GMD was well (if informally) represented in the US by the charming Madam Jiang, that Princess Diana of her day, who travelled the highways and byways of the US speaking to Congress and begging for more money for the GMD.

In due course the US dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese cities and the world war swiftly came to a conclusion.