From the discomfort of the caves to the terror of Rectification, the politics of the Communist base lay behind a veil of secrecy, in sharp contrast to the fierce light that shone on the decay in Chongqing. Service observed that he was at pains not to be taken in by the “spell of the Chinese Communists.” Nonetheless, the first impressions of the Observation Group were immensely positive, with a universal sense that they had “come into a different country and are meeting a different people.” The differences between Yan’an and the Nationalist areas were obvious at every level. “Bodyguards,
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