Part 8 (1/2)

Yan Qizhi, a small farmer's son from Hebei, became a Nationalist infantry soldier at sixteen, and fought his first actions with a locally made Wuhan rifle which always jammed after four shots. His ambition was to arm himself with a sub-machine gun. In one of his regiment's first battles as part of Chiang's 29th Army, it lost almost half its sixteen hundred men. There were only rags to bandage the wounded. ”The j.a.panese had so much more400 of everything,” Yan said, ”and especially aircraft. By 1944, life was pretty wretched. We had just enough to eat, but the food was very poor. We went through the whole winter with only summer uniforms. Most of us, like me, simply had no idea what had happened to our families.” His only notable compensation for service in 29th Army, he said, was that he received his pay. In many of Chiang's formations, senior officers stole the money. ”I hated the war: so many battles, so many dead and maimed friends. When I close my eyes, I can see them now. An army is not just weapons and equipment, it is spirit. The Kuomintang army lost its spirit.” of everything,” Yan said, ”and especially aircraft. By 1944, life was pretty wretched. We had just enough to eat, but the food was very poor. We went through the whole winter with only summer uniforms. Most of us, like me, simply had no idea what had happened to our families.” His only notable compensation for service in 29th Army, he said, was that he received his pay. In many of Chiang's formations, senior officers stole the money. ”I hated the war: so many battles, so many dead and maimed friends. When I close my eyes, I can see them now. An army is not just weapons and equipment, it is spirit. The Kuomintang army lost its spirit.”

The lives of Nationalist soldiers-notionally some two million of them in 1944, organised in two hundred divisions-were relentlessly harsh. Bugles summoned them to advance, to retreat, to die. Their weapons were an erratic miscellany: old German or locally made pistols and rifles; a few machine guns, artillery pieces and mortars, invariably short of ammunition, often rusting. They had no tanks and few vehicles. Commanders might have horses, but their men walked. Only officers had boots or leather shoes. Fortunate soldiers possessed cotton or straw sandals, but were often barefoot beneath the long cotton puttees which covered their legs. If they had a little kerosene, they used it to bathe chronic blisters.

Gunner captain Ying Yunping found himself walking more than two hundred miles during an epic retreat to Mianyang. One night, accompanied only by his batman, he staggered into a village and begged shelter and food. He was grudgingly given a few salted vegetables. His suspicions were roused, however, when he noticed that many of the people around him were carrying guns. His batman finally muttered: ”They're bandits. They want your sub-machine gun. They say they hate the Kuomintang, and they're going to kill you.” Ying's skin was finally saved by the eloquence of his batman, who parleyed with the bandits for the officer's life, saying: ”He's not one of the corrupt b.a.s.t.a.r.ds. He's not a bad fellow.” Finally, a villager came to Ying and said: ”Forgive us.” The captain shrugged: ”There's nothing to forgive401. You have given me my life.” Next day, he and his batman trudged onwards, away from the j.a.panese, towards Mianyang. When they rejoined the army, officer and soldier were separated. ”In wartime, it was very hard to stay in touch. I never saw him again. But in my thoughts, for the rest of my life he has been 'my Mianyang brother.'”

Off-duty, officers drank the fierce maotai maotai spirit, played mahjong, visited brothels or attended the occasional show put on by a ”comfort party” of actors and singers. Few rankers enjoyed such indulgences. Soldiers smoked ”Little Blue Sword” cigarettes when they were fortunate enough to be able to get them. John Paton Davies described the pathetic pleasures on which Chiang's men depended to relieve a life of otherwise unbroken hards.h.i.+p and oppression: ”a cricket in a tiny straw cage spirit, played mahjong, visited brothels or attended the occasional show put on by a ”comfort party” of actors and singers. Few rankers enjoyed such indulgences. Soldiers smoked ”Little Blue Sword” cigarettes when they were fortunate enough to be able to get them. John Paton Davies described the pathetic pleasures on which Chiang's men depended to relieve a life of otherwise unbroken hards.h.i.+p and oppression: ”a cricket in a tiny straw cage402, a shadow play manipulated by an itinerant puppeteer, gambling a pittance on games of chance, or listening to the fluted tones of flights of pigeons, each with a whistle tied to a leg-any one of these was enough to make an off-duty afternoon.”

Among Nationalist soldiers leave was unknown, desertion endemic. Eight hundred recruits once set off from Gansu to join a U.S. Army training programme in Yunnan. Two hundred died en route, and a further three hundred deserted. Tuberculosis was commonplace. Wounded men often had to pay comrades to carry their stretchers, for otherwise they were left to perish. In battle or out of it communications, mail, tidings of the outside world, were almost non-existent. Ying Yunping, a thirty-year-old403 born in Manchuria the son of a salt merchant, was a married man with a baby daughter. During the early battles for Nanjing, his wife left him to return to her family. Ying never saw or heard of her and their daughter again. born in Manchuria the son of a salt merchant, was a married man with a baby daughter. During the early battles for Nanjing, his wife left him to return to her family. Ying never saw or heard of her and their daughter again.

If men received their rations, these might consist of fried pancakes, pickles, soup. The fortunate carried a sack of dried fried rice. In a town, in the unlikely event that a man possessed money, he might buy from a street seller a bowl of ”congress of eight jewels,” or youtiao youtiao-a stick of fried batter. More often, desperate soldiers were driven to seize whatever they could extort from hapless peasants or townspeople. The official ration allowance of twenty-four ounces of rice and vegetables a day was seldom issued. GIs laughed to see Chinese soldiers carrying dead dogs on poles to their cooking pots. Yet what else was there to eat? ”Even junior officers could not survive or feed their families without corruption,” said Xu Yongqiang, who served in Burma. Luo Dingwen, an infantry platoon commander with 29th Army, saw peasants lying by the roadside as his regiment marched past, dying or dead of starvation. ”We usually relied on what food404 we could find in villages in our path,” he said. Despairing American military advisers reported that many Chinese soldiers were too weak even to march with weapons and equipment. Most were clinically malnourished. Not even the U.S. could feed two million men by air over the Hump. we could find in villages in our path,” he said. Despairing American military advisers reported that many Chinese soldiers were too weak even to march with weapons and equipment. Most were clinically malnourished. Not even the U.S. could feed two million men by air over the Hump.

A prominent American soldier in China wrote of his Nationalist counterparts: ”Senior officers were suspicious405 of all foreign officers, totally callous to their subordinates and would not voluntarily a.s.sist other Chinese units in trouble.” General Sun in northern Burma refused to loan mules to take food and drugs to another formation, even though he knew its men were starving. A Chinese divisional finance officer casually asked an American: ”How are you getting yours?” He was curious about his U.S. colleague's route to ”squeeze.” of all foreign officers, totally callous to their subordinates and would not voluntarily a.s.sist other Chinese units in trouble.” General Sun in northern Burma refused to loan mules to take food and drugs to another formation, even though he knew its men were starving. A Chinese divisional finance officer casually asked an American: ”How are you getting yours?” He was curious about his U.S. colleague's route to ”squeeze.”

There is no dispute-outside modern j.a.pan, anyway-about the atrocities carried out by the j.a.panese in China, merely about their scale: for instance, j.a.panese historians make a plausible case that ”only” 50,000 Chinese were killed in the 1937 Nanjing ma.s.sacre, rather than the 300,000 claimed by such writers as Iris Chang. Yet the overall scale of slaughter was appalling. In 1941 the j.a.panese launched their notorious ”Three All” offensive, explicitly named for its purpose to ”Kill All, Burn All, Destroy All.” Several million Chinese died. The survivors were herded into ”protected areas” where they were employed as slave labourers to build forts and pillboxes.

It was an extraordinary reflection of the cult of bus.h.i.+do bus.h.i.+do that many j.a.panese soldiers took pride in sending home to their families photographs of beheadings and bayonetings, writing letters and diaries in which they described appalling deeds. ”To the j.a.panese soldier that many j.a.panese soldiers took pride in sending home to their families photographs of beheadings and bayonetings, writing letters and diaries in which they described appalling deeds. ”To the j.a.panese soldier406,” an American foreign service officer reported to Was.h.i.+ngton, ”the resistance from armed peasants...and the unmistakable resentment or fear of those whom he does not succeed in 'liberating' are a shocking rejection of his idealism...The average j.a.panese soldier...benightedly vents the conflict in vengeful action against the people whom he believes have denied his chivalry.”

The j.a.panese argued that the Chinese were equally merciless to foes, and it is true that the Nationalists frequently shot prisoners. The Communists, at this period of the war, sought to spare the peasantry and customarily recruited KMT prisoners into their own ranks, even if officers were unlikely to survive. But beheadings of political enemies were familiar public spectacles in China. Most j.a.panese soldiers were no more willing to accept captivity in Chinese hands than in those of the Western Allies. ”Once in 1944, we had a j.a.panese post surrounded,” said Communist guerrilla Li Fenggui of 8th Route Army. ”The defenders fought until their ammunition was gone. Even then, one man ran towards four of us, brandis.h.i.+ng his rifle. This j.a.panese and one of our men went at each other with bayonets. They thrust and parried until I managed to get behind the j.a.panese and give him a stroke which took his arm off. He fell to the ground quick enough, but we had to keep stabbing again and again until he lay still and died. That was a brave man!”

A Nationalist soldier found his unit unexpectedly under fire while escorting sixty j.a.panese POWs. ”At such a moment [our commander]407 was in no position to consider his orders to treat prisoners well. He had to take resolute action. At the word, our machine gunners opened fire, and we rid ourselves of the enc.u.mbrance.” Rural areas feared the depredations of the Nationalist army at least as much as those of the j.a.panese. Peasants had a saying: ”Bandits come and go. Soldiers come and stay.” Modern Chinese historians argue, however, that the fact that their own people inflicted atrocities upon each other was, and remains, a domestic matter of no rightful concern to foreigners; that nothing done by Chiang or Mao mitigates the crimes of the j.a.panese. was in no position to consider his orders to treat prisoners well. He had to take resolute action. At the word, our machine gunners opened fire, and we rid ourselves of the enc.u.mbrance.” Rural areas feared the depredations of the Nationalist army at least as much as those of the j.a.panese. Peasants had a saying: ”Bandits come and go. Soldiers come and stay.” Modern Chinese historians argue, however, that the fact that their own people inflicted atrocities upon each other was, and remains, a domestic matter of no rightful concern to foreigners; that nothing done by Chiang or Mao mitigates the crimes of the j.a.panese.

At the cost of deploying a million men, the occupiers maintained almost effortless military dominance over the forces of Chiang, and never sought to challenge Communist control of Yan'an Province. At the November 1943 Cairo Conference, President Roosevelt insisted upon anointing China as one of the four great Allied powers, a.s.sisted by Stalin's acquiescence and in the face of Churchill's contempt. Yet Roosevelt's crusade to make China a modern power languished in the face of poverty, corruption, cruelty, incompetence, ignorance on a scale beyond even U.S. might and wealth to remedy. It was characteristic of the cultural contempt which China harboured towards other societies that even in the darkest days of the j.a.panese war, almost all Chinese retained a profound disdain for the Americans and British. Additionally, as Christopher Thorne has argued408, the U.S. never satisfactorily resolved its purpose. Did it seek to help China win its struggle against the j.a.panese? To create a strong China? Or to support the regime of Chiang Kai-shek? These objectives were probably unattainable, and certainly irreconcilable. Thorne omits a fourth, which weighed far more heavily with the U.S. chiefs of staff than any altruistic desire to aid the Chinese people. Just as in Europe Soviet soldiers were doing most of the dying necessary to destroy n.a.z.ism, Was.h.i.+ngton hoped that in Asia the expenditure of Chinese lives might save American ones.

All these aspirations foundered amidst the chaos and misery of China, and the inability of Chiang Kai-shek to fulfil the role for which Was.h.i.+ngton cast him. In 1944, Chiang's economic recklessness and a j.a.panese initiative which flooded southern China with $100 billion of counterfeit money created catastrophic inflation, which ruined the middle cla.s.s. A quarter of the population of Nationalist areas were by then refugees, victims of the forced ma.s.s migrations which characterised the wartime period. A drought in the south is thought to have killed a million people. Some American personnel were making fortunes running a black market in fuel and supplies. Even as Chinese people were dying of starvation, some Nationalist army officers sold food to the j.a.panese.

A visiting American intelligence officer delivered a devastating report to the War Department in May 1944:

Chinese troops are underfed, improperly clothed, poorly equipped, poorly trained, lacking in leaders.h.i.+p...Because of ”squeeze,” men are lucky to get 16 oz of their 22 oz daily rice ration. Almost all are illiterate. Motor maintenance is a problem, as they run a vehicle until it stops before any inspection is conducted. Trucks are usually overloaded 200%. Most drivers operate at an excessive rate of speed at all times. Along the Salween river, I was informed that not a shot had been fired since last November...that not over 2000 j.a.panese opposed fifteen Chinese divisions. Most of the troops appeared to be loafing. A Chinese army subsists locally and lives off the country...During the first week of February 1944 Lt. Budd, railhead officer at Kunming, dispatched 250 trucks for Kweiyang. Of this number 192 trucks failed to report and were either hijacked or stolen outright by Chinese drivers.

In the first quarter of 1944, 278 American trucks in southern China simply disappeared. The report a.s.serted that a section409 a.s.sessing the performance of Chinese commanders was endorsed by all long-serving U.S. officers in China, but the relevant pages of the National Archive copy are missing, marked ”Removed on orders of the War Department.” It is reasonable to guess that this excision was made in 1944, because the report's verdict was so d.a.m.ning. a.s.sessing the performance of Chinese commanders was endorsed by all long-serving U.S. officers in China, but the relevant pages of the National Archive copy are missing, marked ”Removed on orders of the War Department.” It is reasonable to guess that this excision was made in 1944, because the report's verdict was so d.a.m.ning.

IN THE SPRING OF 1944, when elsewhere in Asia and the Pacific their fortunes were in relentless decline, amazingly the j.a.panese found the will and the means to launch ”Ichigo,” an ambitious operation which swept across central and southern China, vastly enlarging j.a.pan's area of occupation. Ichigo was provoked by the American air threat. B-29 bombers had begun to operate from bases in China. The j.a.panese initiated Ichigo to deprive the Americans of these. Half a million men, 100,000 horses, 800 tanks and 15,000 vehicles swept across the Yellow River and into Henan Province on a 120-mile-wide front. Some thirty-four Nationalist divisions simply melted away in their path. The j.a.panese killed forty Chinese for every loss of their own. Nationalist resistance was almost entirely ineffectual. Chiang invariably overstated his own difficulties, to extort additional aid from the Allies. But the British director of military intelligence in India reported on 17 May 1944: 1944, when elsewhere in Asia and the Pacific their fortunes were in relentless decline, amazingly the j.a.panese found the will and the means to launch ”Ichigo,” an ambitious operation which swept across central and southern China, vastly enlarging j.a.pan's area of occupation. Ichigo was provoked by the American air threat. B-29 bombers had begun to operate from bases in China. The j.a.panese initiated Ichigo to deprive the Americans of these. Half a million men, 100,000 horses, 800 tanks and 15,000 vehicles swept across the Yellow River and into Henan Province on a 120-mile-wide front. Some thirty-four Nationalist divisions simply melted away in their path. The j.a.panese killed forty Chinese for every loss of their own. Nationalist resistance was almost entirely ineffectual. Chiang invariably overstated his own difficulties, to extort additional aid from the Allies. But the British director of military intelligence in India reported on 17 May 1944:

It has been the lowest common denominator410 of appreciation of China's prospects that, however much conditions depreciated, China would not capitulate...There is now a distinct possibility of China's collapse...Conditions in occupied territory are said to compare favourably with those in KMT areas...[Its] collapse would render the Burma campaign a waste of effort...The plight of the common people is so bad that they would be apathetic and do nothing...There would be no regret for the Allies, as anti-foreign feeling is always just below the surface. The disaffection in the provinces is so great that their leaders would take a purely opportunistic view. The Generalissimo, faced with a crumbling structure, has no machinery with which to save it. of appreciation of China's prospects that, however much conditions depreciated, China would not capitulate...There is now a distinct possibility of China's collapse...Conditions in occupied territory are said to compare favourably with those in KMT areas...[Its] collapse would render the Burma campaign a waste of effort...The plight of the common people is so bad that they would be apathetic and do nothing...There would be no regret for the Allies, as anti-foreign feeling is always just below the surface. The disaffection in the provinces is so great that their leaders would take a purely opportunistic view. The Generalissimo, faced with a crumbling structure, has no machinery with which to save it.

On the j.a.panese rolled into Hunan Province, crossing the Miluo River, killing casually as they went. Hunan had already been suffering famine for two years. Now matters grew much worse. For the Chinese people of the rice-producing regions between Hunan and Guangdong, in Guangxi and Guizhou provinces, Ichigo meant hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, of new deaths from famine and disease. Peasants were reported to have revolted, disarming as many as 50,000 Nationalist soldiers, who were willing enough to abandon the war. American special forces teams from the Office of Strategic Services strove to deny the j.a.panese the great supply dumps and airfield facilities established at such cost. Some 50,000 tons of materiel were destroyed at one base, Tusham, by Maj. Frank Gleason and fifteen Americans, together with their Chinese cook and orphan mascot. The Nationalist retreat was punctuated by occasional stands, notably at Hengyang in June and July. The American correspondent Theodore White joined 62nd Army, which was seeking to dislodge the j.a.panese from the southern hills beyond the town:

It was dawn when we fell411 into the troop column, but the cloudless skies were already scorching. As far as we could see ahead into the hills and beyond were marching men. They crawled on foot over every footpath through the rice paddies; they snaked along over every ditch and broken bridge in parallel rivulets of sweating humanity. One man in three had a rifle; the rest carried supplies, telephone wire, rice sacks, machine-gun parts. Between the unsmiling soldiers plodded blue-gowned peasant coolies who had been impressed for carrier duty. There was not a single motor, not a truck...not a piece of artillery...The men walked quietly, with the curious bitterness of Chinese soldiers who expect nothing but disaster. into the troop column, but the cloudless skies were already scorching. As far as we could see ahead into the hills and beyond were marching men. They crawled on foot over every footpath through the rice paddies; they snaked along over every ditch and broken bridge in parallel rivulets of sweating humanity. One man in three had a rifle; the rest carried supplies, telephone wire, rice sacks, machine-gun parts. Between the unsmiling soldiers plodded blue-gowned peasant coolies who had been impressed for carrier duty. There was not a single motor, not a truck...not a piece of artillery...The men walked quietly, with the curious bitterness of Chinese soldiers who expect nothing but disaster.

White watched pityingly as lines of men in their yellow and brown uniforms, feet broken and puffed, heads covered not by helmets, but instead by woven leaves for protection from the sun, sought to claw a way up the hills towards the j.a.panese positions. For three days he awaited the trumpeted Nationalist counter-offensive. Then he understood: he had witnessed it. On 8 August, Hengyang fell. Later that month, when the j.a.panese had reorganised their supply lines, they resumed their advance. Chiang's 62nd Army melted away in their path. Logistics, not resistance, was the chief force determining the enemy's pace. ”Even in late 1944,” one of Chiang's biographers has written, ”the j.a.panese army could still march412 where it wished and take what it wanted.” Allied intelligence officers expressed surprise that the j.a.panese were advancing only forty miles a week, ”despite facing nil opposition.” where it wished and take what it wanted.” Allied intelligence officers expressed surprise that the j.a.panese were advancing only forty miles a week, ”despite facing nil opposition.”

Chiang ordered that commanders who retreated should be shot, but this did not noticeably improve his armies' performance. Added to the miseries of war were ghastly accidents such as one at Guilin, where a locomotive ploughed into a crowd of refugees standing on the railway tracks, killing several hundred. Chiang and Meiling chose this moment to hold a press conference at which they denied rumours that their marriage was in difficulties. Madame Chiang and her sister then set off for Brazil, exploring a possible haven for their family fortune if events at home continued to go awry. Even the most committed Americans came close to despair. China resembled a vast wounded animal, bleeding in a thousand places, prostrate in the dust, twitching and las.h.i.+ng out in its agony, inflicting more pain upon itself than upon its foes.

The only Chinese divisions which performed with some competence were five-equivalent in strength to two American-serving in northern Burma. These were the creations of the U.S. general ”Vinegar Joe” Stilwell. He flew tens of thousands of men for training in India, where they were quarantined from Nationalist corruption and incompetence, then deployed them for an offensive aimed at reopening the land route into China. Equipped, fed and paid by the Americans, often receiving the benefit of U.S. air support, these units proved notably more effective than their brethren in China.

”Chinese soldiers showed413 what they could do if they were properly trained and given American equipment,” Wen Shan, a lawyer's son who served in Burma as a truck driver, said proudly. ”We had officers who did not steal men's food, as they did in China.” Wen, like many young Chinese who served with Americans, was boundlessly impressed by their wealth and generosity, though shocked by the way white GIs treated their black counterparts. Jiang Zhen, a twenty-three-year-old landlord's son from Shanghai who drove trucks on the Ledo road, said of his time there: ”I was very lucky what they could do if they were properly trained and given American equipment,” Wen Shan, a lawyer's son who served in Burma as a truck driver, said proudly. ”We had officers who did not steal men's food, as they did in China.” Wen, like many young Chinese who served with Americans, was boundlessly impressed by their wealth and generosity, though shocked by the way white GIs treated their black counterparts. Jiang Zhen, a twenty-three-year-old landlord's son from Shanghai who drove trucks on the Ledo road, said of his time there: ”I was very lucky414. I had a great opportunity, and it became an important experience in my life.”

Wu Guoqing, an interpreter at 14th Division headquarters in Burma, enjoyed his entire experience with the army. In India and on the battlefield he marvelled at the openness of the Americans with whom he served: ”They said what they liked415. They criticised their own government. That's what they call democracy. In China we are not like that, not open in the same way.” Yet it would be mistaken to over-idealise either the Chinese-American relations.h.i.+p in Burma, or the performance of the Nationalist divisions there. Wu witnessed a bitter row between a young U.S. military adviser and a Chinese colonel. The American officer pressed the Nationalists to display more aggression, especially about patrolling. The KMT officer flatly refused. Likewise, when British troops in Burma began to operate with Stilwell's force, they were unimpressed by Chinese pa.s.sivity. The British official historian wrote contemptuously: ”It might be said that416 never had such an army remained so inactive before so small an enemy force for so long.” The modest achievements of Stilwell's divisions in northern Burma counted for little, set against the strategic paralysis prevailing in Chiang's own country. never had such an army remained so inactive before so small an enemy force for so long.” The modest achievements of Stilwell's divisions in northern Burma counted for little, set against the strategic paralysis prevailing in Chiang's own country.

3. The Fall of Stilwell

IN THE LATE summer of 1944, the j.a.panese Ichigo offensive precipitated a crisis in the relations.h.i.+p between Chiang Kai-shek and the American government. As the Nationalist armies fell back, ceding great tracts of territory, leading figures in the U.S. leaders.h.i.+p at last perceived that China was incapable of fulfilling Was.h.i.+ngton's ambitions. It could not become a major force in the struggle against j.a.pan. Stilwell signalled to Marshall, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff: ”I am now convinced that he [Chiang] regards the South China catastrophe as of little moment, believing that the j.a.ps will not bother him further in that area, and that he imagines he can get behind the Salween [river] and there wait in safety for the U.S. to finish the war.” This was an entirely accurate perception, but one of little service to the relations.h.i.+p between China's leader and America's senior military representative in his country. summer of 1944, the j.a.panese Ichigo offensive precipitated a crisis in the relations.h.i.+p between Chiang Kai-shek and the American government. As the Nationalist armies fell back, ceding great tracts of territory, leading figures in the U.S. leaders.h.i.+p at last perceived that China was incapable of fulfilling Was.h.i.+ngton's ambitions. It could not become a major force in the struggle against j.a.pan. Stilwell signalled to Marshall, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff: ”I am now convinced that he [Chiang] regards the South China catastrophe as of little moment, believing that the j.a.ps will not bother him further in that area, and that he imagines he can get behind the Salween [river] and there wait in safety for the U.S. to finish the war.” This was an entirely accurate perception, but one of little service to the relations.h.i.+p between China's leader and America's senior military representative in his country.

Personal antagonism between Stilwell and Chiang, festering for many months, attained a climax. Few Americans knew more about China than ”Vinegar Joe.” After serving in France in 1918, where he rose to the rank of colonel, he spent most of the inter-war years in the East, and learned the Chinese language. A protege of Marshall, who admired his brains and energy, Stilwell was appointed in February 1942 to head the U.S. Military Mission to Chiang, and to direct lend-lease. He also accepted the role of chief of staff to the generalissimo. From the outset, it seemed bizarre to appoint to a post requiring acute diplomatic sensitivity an officer famously intense, pa.s.sionate, intolerant, suspicious, secretive. Stilwell praised subordinates as ”good haters,” and cherished his feuds as much as his friends.h.i.+ps. During the 1942 retreat from Burma he took personal command of two Chinese divisions, sharing with them a gruelling 140-mile march to sanctuary in India. Sceptics said that such adventures showed Stilwell's unfitness for high command: he had no business indulging a personal predilection for leading from the front, putting himself with the men in the line, when his proper role was at the generalissimo's side, galvanising China's war effort.

Roosevelt delivered homilies about the importance of treating Chiang with respect, writing to Marshall: ”All of us must remember417 that the Generalissimo came up the hard way to become the undisputed leader of four hundred million people...and to create in a very short time throughout China what it took us a couple of centuries to attain...He is the chief executive as well as the commander-in-chief, and one cannot speak sternly to a man like that or exact commitments from him the way we might do from the Sultan of Morocco.” that the Generalissimo came up the hard way to become the undisputed leader of four hundred million people...and to create in a very short time throughout China what it took us a couple of centuries to attain...He is the chief executive as well as the commander-in-chief, and one cannot speak sternly to a man like that or exact commitments from him the way we might do from the Sultan of Morocco.”

This, of course, was nonsense. Roosevelt's remarks reflected naivete about the mandate of Chiang, as well as about the character of Stilwell. The general was incapable of the sort of discretion the president urged. Famously outspoken, he flaunted his contempt for the incompetence of Chiang-”the peanut”-and for the British, whose military performance impressed him as little as their governance of India. Roosevelt urged U.S. commanders to display greater respect for the ruler of China, but American policy reflected a colonialist vision. It was absurd to suppose that an American general could impose on Chinese armies standards which their own officers could not; that Nationalist soldiers could be incited by a few thousand Americans to achieve objectives which Chiang and his followers refused to promote. American adviser Maj. E. J. Wilkie complained that even Stilwell-trained Chinese troops were hopelessly casual in their use of firearms: ”I saw a machine gunner418 firing his weapon with one hand while eating with his other.” firing his weapon with one hand while eating with his other.”

Stilwell's most notable military achievement was to direct the advance of Chinese troops on Myitkyina, the northern Burmese town whose liberation was critical to opening the Burma Road. Aided by a small force of Americans-the legendary Merrill's Marauders, who endured hards.h.i.+ps comparable with those of Wingate's Chindits-Stilwell's forces triumphed at Myitkyina in August 1944. Yet the British, whose forces contributed significantly to that operation, remained highly sceptical of the Chinese performance, and of Stilwell's claims for it. Success at Myitkyina owed much more to j.a.panese weakness than to Allied genius. A shrewd judgement on Stilwell was offered by the British Bill Slim, who liked the American, and thought his post-war published diaries did him a disservice: ”He was much more than419 the bad-tempered, prejudiced, often not very well-informed and quarrelsome old man they showed him to be. He was all that, but in addition he was a first-cla.s.s battle leader up to, I should say, Corps level, and an excellent tactician, but a poor administrator. At higher levels he had neither the temperament nor the strategic background or judgement to be effective.” the bad-tempered, prejudiced, often not very well-informed and quarrelsome old man they showed him to be. He was all that, but in addition he was a first-cla.s.s battle leader up to, I should say, Corps level, and an excellent tactician, but a poor administrator. At higher levels he had neither the temperament nor the strategic background or judgement to be effective.”