Stilwell and the American Experience in China: 1911-1945

by Barbara W. Tuchman

Pai Ch’ung-hsi was not interested in the lesson of attack. He reverted to the theory of winning by outlasting. “We can afford to lose four men if the Japanese lose one,” he said, adding that Chinese losses would be of “no significance” until they passed 50 million. The Chinese, Stilwell commented, “cannot get the idea of the offensive into their heads.”

At Toungoo Alexander asked General Tu what had happened to his field guns which he had seen the day before, expertly dug in, well-sited and carefully camouflaged. Tu said he had withdrawn them to safety. “Then you mean that they will take no part in the battle?” “Exactly.” “But then what use are they?” “General, the Fifth Army is our best army because it is the only one which has any field guns, and I cannot afford to risk those guns. If I lose them the Fifth Army will no longer be our best.”

By keeping rivals off balance through a technique of “fear and favor,” in Stilwell’s phrase, he appeared strong and indispensable but he did not know how to make a government. Though long on experience, his mind was narrow and his education limited. His most serious handicap was the lack of competent government servants. He never allowed a really able man to reach an important post lest he become too strong. Because he made loyalty rather than ability the criterion of service he was surrounded by mediocrities.

In a last effort Mountbatten said that even if that many planes could be found, it would be impossible to meet the Generalissimo’s demands for the Hump and at the same time mount the airborne assault on Mandalay that he wanted before the monsoon. At this point a prolonged colloquy ensued between Chiang and his wife until, responding to the query in Mountbatten’s raised eyebrows, Madame turned to him and said, “Believe it or not, he does not know about the monsoon.” It was an enlightening proof of some of Stilwell’s difficulties with the G–mo. The monsoon was the governing fact of life and of war in Southeast Asia. But Chiang Kai-shek was ruler of the Middle Kingdom and Chinese in his Middle-Kingdomness. China has no monsoon; ergo, he knew nothing of it.