Stilwell and the American Experience in China: 1911-1945

by Barbara W. Tuchman

As Secretary of State, Marshall remained convinced that the Kuomintang could not win the civil war without American military intervention. To this he was steadily and unalterably opposed, nor was there any public sentiment calling for it. Under the rising heat of political pressure, demands for every other kind of help were strident. Arms sales to the Nationalists were resumed, various missions were sent and $400,000,000 of economic assistance was extended by the China Aid Act of 1948. Denounced by the Communists as a useless prolonging of the civil war, this aid was used to generate a wave of anti-American feeling in the weary populace. Chiang’s forces under “the world’s worst leadership” (in the words of General Barr, chief of a new Army Advisory Group) lost crucial battles; entire divisions defected to the Communists; economic chaos increased popular detestation of the discredited Kuomintang. In October 1948 the Generalissimo declared that the salvation of Asia depended on China and he hoped “the American people and their statesmen will dedicate their lives to this task.” Madame came to Washington to ask for a new aid program of $3 billion over three years and a declaration of American determination to defeat Communism.