Stilwell and the American Experience in China: 1911-1945

by Barbara W. Tuchman

The Chinese Communists of 1944 did not appear alarming, but on the contrary, like most challengers who have yet to succeed, rather attractive. In their rough and rumpled clothes, their earnest talk, their hard work and simple life, their energy, vitality and sincerity, they were a refreshing contrast to the world of the Kuomintang. That was their chief charm. In the absence of war effort by the Central Government especially after ICHIGO, it began to be taken for granted by Americans that the United States would have to cooperate with the Communists. As soldiers they looked useful. They were “better men physically,” as General Dorn later testified, “better fed, better clothed…with better morale than the Nationalist troops.” Their leaders on the whole appeared more able, less corrupt, fundamentally stronger men than those of the Kuomintang.