Stilwell stated his position on the Communists flatly and frankly in a memorandum for Hurley. “The 18th Group Army (Reds) will be used. There must be no misunderstanding on this point. They can be brought to bear where there will be no conflict with Central Government troops but they must be accepted as part of the team during the crisis.” This was not exactly a conspirator’s undercover plot to use the Communists to overthrow Chiang Kai-shek as was later, in the hysterical days of American anti-Communism, suggested. Hurley, who subsequently joined and largely assisted the hysteria, at this
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