Daniel Kurtz-Phelan

While we all know George Marshall for his brilliant reconstruction of post-WWII Europe, many (including me) are unaware of his appointment by Truman to stave off civil war between Mao Zedong's Communist Army and Chiang kai-Shek's Kuomingtang in China. Despite having read a lot about 20th century Chinese history and having frequently visited mainland PRC, Taiwan and pre-1997 handover Hong Kong, I don't remember reading anything about this (unless as a disregarded footnote?). Early on, Marshall and Mao even publicly swore eternal unity and friendship between their two governments!!

Of course, Marshall's mission was doomed to failure. The US diplomats who had preceded Marshall had poisoned the well through their ignorance and arrogance leading to a string of bad decisions and gaining the contempt of both Chinese leaders. While the US military and political envoys only looked at the Chinese in terms of how much they could support US efforts, it never occurred to them that both Chinese leaders were calculating how little assistance each of them could provide while enhancing their relative positions prior to the impending civil war. And we all know how THAT turned out!… (meer)