Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45, Barbara W. Tuchman

The dis-oriented author's daughter is a reader. This Christmas she gave me one of the nicest gifts I have ever received. She gave me Barbara Tuchman's excellent, Pulitzer Prize winning, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45. I had already read Tuchman's Guns of August, also a Pulitzer winner.

I think my daughter may have had an ulterior motive. She is studying Chinese in college and she will be leaving for a summer of language study in China in a few weeks. Now that I am done, she gets to read it.

I have to admit that I didn't know anything about General Vinegar Joe Stillwell. After reading Stillwell, I realized that I didn't know anything about China either.

One of the things I enjoy about Barbara Tuchman is that she is a writer. By that I mean a real write, a wordsmith of the old school. Tuchman's books are notable not just for their content but also for the sheer beauty of her writing.

The story begins by introducing the protagonist and antagonist: Joe Stillwell and China.

Early in his career, Stillwell showed proficiency in languages. Eventually, he was stationed in China and became fluent in the language. He traveled all over the country often alone and on foot.

At the turn of the century (20th), China was a country in transition. Several of her port cities were still ruled by foreign (western) nations and Chinese sovereignty was still more fiction than fact. Onto this scene came the the Japanese and the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. The Japanese envisioned an ascendant Asia free of western influence. Of course, the Imperialist Japanese vision placed all of Asia under Japanese rule.

Long before Pearl Harbor, the Japanese had invaded China. I had read Iris Chang's, The Rape of Nanking but that book focused narrowly on Japanese atrocities in that honorific chapter of the war. After the humiliating defeat of the British in Malaya and Singapore, Stillwell became a military advisor to China's leader, Chiang Kai-shek.

The remainder of the book is about the Byzantine world Stillwell's faced in trying to unite British, Chinese and American forces against the Japanese in the China, Burma, India theater. He had Chiang who was more concerned about fending off the local communist opposition than fighting the Japanese. The British were concerned about restoring their territories and influence in the Far East. The British were also concerned about losing control of India. Even the Americans had to decide where to apply their resources resources and  North Africa initially got the lion's share.

Stillwell had to compete for influence both with Chiang Kai-shek and with Roosevelt with Air Corps General Clair Chenault. Chenault believed that air power was the key to the theater and he took his case directly to American and Chinese leaders.

Stillwell who was often blunt was forced to be military leader, diplomat and adviser, while trying to build an army to fight the Japanese. He did his best in a difficult job.

In the end, Japan left China, but so did Chiang Kai-shek after the Chinese Communists took over. Tuchman ends the book with these telling words:

In the end China went her own way as if the Americans had never come.

A fascinating book that helps lay the groundwork for the shape of the modern world.

Stillwell gets 5 of 5 dis-oriented smileys

Purchase Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45  from Amazon.com.