Download or read book The China Mission George Marshall s Unfinished War 1945 1947 written by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2018-04-10 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Economist Best Book of 2018 A spellbinding narrative of the high-stakes mission that changed the course of America, China, and global politics—and a rich portrait of the towering, complex figure who carried it out. As World War II came to an end, General George Marshall was renowned as the architect of Allied victory. Set to retire, he instead accepted what he thought was a final mission—this time not to win a war, but to stop one. Across the Pacific, conflict between Chinese Nationalists and Communists threatened to suck in the United States and escalate into revolution. His assignment was to broker a peace, build a Chinese democracy, and prevent a Communist takeover, all while staving off World War III. In his thirteen months in China, Marshall journeyed across battle-scarred landscapes, grappled with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, and plotted and argued with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his brilliant wife, often over card games or cocktails. The results at first seemed miraculous. But as they started to come apart, Marshall was faced with a wrenching choice. Its consequences would define the rest of his career, as the secretary of state who launched the Marshall Plan and set the standard for American leadership, and the shape of the Cold War and the US-China relationship for decades to come. It would also help spark one of the darkest turns in American civic life, as Marshall and the mission became a first prominent target of McCarthyism, and the question of “who lost China” roiled American politics. The China Mission traces this neglected turning point and forgotten interlude in a heroic career—a story of not just diplomatic wrangling and guerrilla warfare, but also intricate spycraft and charismatic personalities. Drawing on eyewitness accounts both personal and official, it offers a richly detailed, gripping, close-up, and often surprising view of the central figures of the time—from Marshall, Mao, and Chiang to Eisenhower, Truman, and MacArthur—as they stood face-to-face and struggled to make history, with consequences and lessons that echo today.
Download or read book The China Mission written by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2019-04-16 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Economist Best Book of 2018 New York Times Book Review Editor’s Pick “Gripping [and] splendid.… An enormous contribution to our understanding of Marshall.”—Washington Post At the end of World War II, General George Marshall took on what he thought was a final mission—this time not to win a war, but to stop one. In China, conflict between Communists and Nationalists threatened to suck in the United States and escalate into revolution. Marshall’s charge was to cross the Pacific, broker a peace, and prevent a Communist takeover, all while staving off World War III. At first, the results seemed miraculous. But as they started to come apart, Marshall was faced with a wrenching choice—one that would alter the course of the Cold War, define the US-China relationship, and spark one of the darkest-ever turns in American political life. The China Mission offers a gripping, close-up view of the central figures of the time—from Marshall, Mao, and Chiang Kai-shek to Eisenhower, Truman, and MacArthur—as they stood face-to-face and struggled to make history, with consequences and lessons that echo today.
Download or read book Mission to Yenan written by Carolle J. Carter and published by University Press of Kentucky. This book was released on 2014-10-17 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Conventional wisdom informs us that "only Nixon could go to China." In fact, in 1944, nearly thirty years before his historic trip, the American military established the first liaison and intelligence-gathering mission with the Chinese Communists in Yenan. Commonly referred to as the Dixie Mission, the detached military unit sent to Yenan was responsible for transmitting weather information, assisting the Communists in their rescue of downed American flyers, and laying the groundwork for an eventual rapprochement between the Communists and Nationalists, the two sides struggling in the ongoing Chinese Civil War. Following extensive use of archival sources and numerous interviews with the men who traveled and served in Yenan, Carolle Carter argues that while Dixie fulfilled its assignment, the members steered the mission in different directions from its original, albeit loosely described, intent. As the months and years passed, the Dixie Mission increasingly emphasized intelligence gathering over evaluating their Communist hosts' contribution to the war effort against Japan. Some American politicians in the 1950s portrayed the participants in the Dixie Mission as too sympathetic to the Chinese Communists. But during the 1970s many looked back at these individuals as wise but ignored oracles who could have prevented the "loss of China." Carter strips away these simplistic portrayals to reveal a diverse and dedicated collection of soldiers, diplomats, and technicians who had ongoing contact with the Chinese Communists longer than any other group during World War II, but who were destined to be a largely unused resource during the Cold War.
Download or read book Opening China written by Jessie Gregory Lutz and published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. This book was released on 2008-04 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Western evangelists have long been fascinated by China, a vast mission field with a unique language and culture. One of the most intrigued was also one of the most intriguing: Karl F. A. Gützlaff (1803-1851). In this erudite study Jessie Gregory Lutz chronicles Gützlaff's life from his youth in Germany to his conversion and subsequent turn to missions to his turbulent time in Asia. Lutz also includes a substantial bibliography consisting of (1) archival sources, (2) selected books, pamphlets, tracts, and translations by Gützlaff, and (3) books, periodicals, and articles. This is truly an important reference for any student of the history of China or missions.
Download or read book Postwar Hollywood written by Drew Casper and published by Wiley-Blackwell. This book was released on 2007-09-11 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a comprehensive introductory textbook exploring the unique period in the history of the film industry after World War II. Casper examines the cultural history, business practices, new technologies, censorship standards, emerging genres, and styles of post-war cinema.
Download or read book Japanese War Criminals written by Sandra Wilson and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-14 with total page 436 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning in late 1945, the United States, Britain, China, Australia, France, the Netherlands, and later the Philippines, the Soviet Union, and the People's Republic of China convened national courts to prosecute Japanese military personnel for war crimes. The defendants included ethnic Koreans and Taiwanese who had served with the armed forces as Japanese subjects. In Tokyo, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East tried Japanese leaders. While the fairness of these trials has been a focus for decades, Japanese War Criminals instead argues that the most important issues arose outside the courtroom. What was the legal basis for identifying and detaining subjects, determining who should be prosecuted, collecting evidence, and granting clemency after conviction? The answers to these questions helped set the norms for transitional justice in the postwar era and today contribute to strategies for addressing problematic areas of international law. Examining the complex moral, ethical, legal, and political issues surrounding the Allied prosecution project, from the first investigations during the war to the final release of prisoners in 1958, Japanese War Criminals shows how a simple effort to punish the guilty evolved into a multidimensional struggle that muddied the assignment of criminal responsibility for war crimes. Over time, indignation in Japan over Allied military actions, particularly the deployment of the atomic bombs, eclipsed anger over Japanese atrocities, and, among the Western powers, new Cold War imperatives took hold. This book makes a unique contribution to our understanding of the construction of the postwar international order in Asia and to our comprehension of the difficulties of implementing transitional justice.
Download or read book The Marshall Plan written by Benn Steil and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-02-13 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2018 American Academy of Diplomacy Douglas Dillon Award Shortlisted for the 2018 Duff Cooper Prize in Literary Nonfiction “[A] brilliant book…by far the best study yet” (Paul Kennedy, The Wall Street Journal) of the gripping history behind the Marshall Plan and its long-lasting influence on our world. In the wake of World War II, with Britain’s empire collapsing and Stalin’s on the rise, US officials under new Secretary of State George C. Marshall set out to reconstruct western Europe as a bulwark against communist authoritarianism. Their massive, costly, and ambitious undertaking would confront Europeans and Americans alike with a vision at odds with their history and self-conceptions. In the process, they would drive the creation of NATO, the European Union, and a Western identity that continue to shape world events. Benn Steil’s “thoroughly researched and well-written account” (USA TODAY) tells the story behind the birth of the Cold War, told with verve, insight, and resonance for today. Focusing on the critical years 1947 to 1949, Benn Steil’s gripping narrative takes us through the seminal episodes marking the collapse of postwar US-Soviet relations—the Prague coup, the Berlin blockade, and the division of Germany. In each case, Stalin’s determination to crush the Marshall Plan and undermine American power in Europe is vividly portrayed. Bringing to bear fascinating new material from American, Russian, German, and other European archives, Steil’s account will forever change how we see the Marshall Plan. “Trenchant and timely…an ambitious, deeply researched narrative that…provides a fresh perspective on the coming Cold War” (The New York Times Book Review), The Marshall Plan is a polished and masterly work of historical narrative. An instant classic of Cold War literature, it “is a gripping, complex, and critically important story that is told with clarity and precision” (The Christian Science Monitor).
Download or read book History for the IB Diploma Paper 3 The People s Republic of China 1949 2005 written by Allan Todd and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-10-13 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Comprehensive books to support study of History for the IB Diploma Paper 3, revised for first assessment in 2017.
Download or read book Chiang Kai Shek s Politics of Shame written by Grace C. Huang and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2021 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Grace C. Huang reconsiders Chiang Kai-shek's leadership and legacy in an intriguing new portrait of this twentieth-century leader. Comparing his response to imperialism to those of Mao, Yuan Shikai, and Mahatma Gandhi, Huang widens the implications of her findings to explore alternatives to Western expressions of nationalism and modernity.
Download or read book China 1945 written by Richard Bernstein and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2015-10-27 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the beginning of 1945, relations between America and the Chinese Communists couldn’t have been closer. Chinese leaders talked of America helping to lift China out of poverty; Mao Zedong himself held friendly meetings with U.S. emissaries. By year’s end, Chinese Communist soldiers were setting ambushes for American marines; official cordiality had been replaced by chilly hostility and distrust, a pattern which would continue for a quarter century, with the devastating wars in Korea and Vietnam among the consequences. In China 1945, Richard Bernstein tells the incredible story of the sea change that took place during that year—brilliantly analyzing its far-reaching components and colorful characters, from diplomats John Paton Davies and John Stewart Service to Time journalist, Henry Luce; in addition to Mao and his intractable counterpart, Chiang Kai-shek, and the indispensable Zhou Enlai. A tour de force of narrative history, China 1945 examines American power coming face-to-face with a formidable Asian revolutionary movement, and challenges familiar assumptions about the origins of modern Sino-American relations.
Download or read book Documents on the Rape of Nanking written by Timothy Brook and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Newly revised resources for understanding the Rape of Nanking
Download or read book George C Marshall and the Early Cold War written by William A. Taylor and published by University of Oklahoma Press. This book was released on 2020-07-09 with total page 396 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Though best known for his central part in the American war effort from 1939 to 1945, George C. Marshall’s critical role in the early Cold War was probably at least as important in shaping the policies and politics of the postwar western world—and in cementing his place as a pivotal figure in twentieth-century American history. This book places Marshall squarely at the center of the story of the American century by examining his tenure in key policymaking positions during this period, including army chief of staff, special presidential envoy to China, secretary of state, and secretary of defense, among others. George C. Marshall and the Early Cold War brings together a diverse and accomplished group of scholars—including military, diplomatic, and institutional historians—to explore how Marshall, Time magazine’s “Man of the Year” in both 1943 and 1947 and the 1953 Nobel Peace Prize winner, molded debates on all the major issues of his day, such as universal military training, China’s civil war, an independent air force, the National Security Act of 1947, nuclear weapons, European Recovery Program, North Atlantic Treaty, Korean War, and racial integration of the U.S. military. With a focus on Marshall’s public service at the intersection of American policy, politics, and society, the authors provide a comprehensive historical account of his central role in shaping America during a tumultuous yet formative period in the nation’s history. Their work fills a void in the scholarship of American military history and American history generally, providing context for the consideration of broader questions about American power and the place of the military within American society.
Download or read book Heinemann Advanced History China 1900 76 written by Geoff Stewart and published by Heinemann Educational Publishers. This book was released on 2006-10-26 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China 1900-76 has been written specifically to support AS Edexcel Units 2 and 3, and is also suitable for AQA Module 4H option D.
Download or read book No Concessions written by Daniel S. Lev and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 474 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through the compelling personal story of human rights lawyer Yap Thiam Hien (1913-1989), from his Hakka Chinese family origins in the Aceh province of colonial Indonesia to his receiving the first Justice William J. Brennan Jr. Human Rights Award in 1987, this volume brings decades of modern Indonesian history to life.
Download or read book George Marshall written by David L. Roll and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 706 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The extraordinary career of General George C. Marshall—America’s most distinguished soldier–statesman since George Washington—whose selfless leadership and moral character influenced the course of two world wars and helped define the American century “I’ve read several biographies of Marshall, but I think [David] Roll’s may be the best of the bunch.”—Thomas E. Ricks, New York Times Book Review • “Powerful.”—The Wall Street Journal • “Enthralling.”—Andrew Roberts • “Important.”—William I. Hitchcock • “Majestic.”—Susan Page • “Engrossing.”—Andrew J. Bacevich • “Judicious.”—Walter Isaacson • “Definitive.”—Kirkus Winston Churchill called him World War II's "organizer of victory." Harry Truman said he was "the greatest military man that this country ever produced." Today, in our era of failed leadership, few lives are more worthy of renewed examination than Marshall and his fifty years of loyal service to the defense of his nation and its values. Even as a young officer Marshall was heralded as a genius, a reputation that grew when in WWI he planned and executed a nighttime movement of more than a half million troops from one battlefield to another that led to the armistice. Between the wars he helped modernize combat training and re-staffed the U.S. Army's officer corps with the men who would lead in the next decades. But as WWII loomed, it was the role of army chief of staff in which Marshall's intellect and backbone were put to the test, when his blind commitment to duty would run up against the realities of Washington politics. Long seen as a stoic, almost statuesque figure, he emerges in these pages as a man both remarkable and human thanks to newly discovered sources. Set against the backdrop of five major conflicts—two world wars, Palestine, Korea, and the Cold War—Marshall's education in military, diplomatic, and political power, replete with their nuances and ambiguities, runs parallel with America's emergence as a global superpower. The result is a defining account of one of our most consequential leaders.
Download or read book A Force So Swift written by Kevin Peraino and published by Crown Publishing Group (NY). This book was released on 2017 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A compelling year-long narrative of America's response to the fall of Chiang Kai-shek and Nationalist China in 1949, and Mao Zedong and the Communist Party's rise to power, forever altering the world's geopolitical map"--Provided by publisher.
Download or read book China Hand written by John Paton Davies, Jr. and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2012-01-31 with total page 373 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the height of the McCarthyite hysteria of the 1950s, John Paton Davies, Jr., was summoned to the State Department one morning and fired. His offense? The career diplomat had counseled the U.S. government during World War II that the Communist forces in China were poised to take over the country—which they did, in 1949. Davies joined the thousands of others who became the victims of a political maelstrom that engulfed the country and deprived the United States of the wisdom and guidance of an entire generation of East Asian diplomats and scholars. The son of American missionaries, Davies was born in China at the turn of the twentieth century. Educated in the United States, he joined the ranks of the newly formed Foreign Service in the 1930s and returned to China, where he would remain until nearly the end of World War II. During that time he became one of the first Americans to meet and talk with the young revolutionary known as Mao Zedong. He documented the personal excesses and political foibles of Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek. As a political aide to General Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, the wartime commander of the Allied forces in East and South Asia, he traveled widely in the region, meeting with colonial India's Nehru and Gandhi to gauge whether their animosity to British rule would translate into support for Japan. Davies ended the war serving in Moscow with George F. Kennan, the architect of America's policy toward the Soviet Union. Kennan found in Davies a lifelong friend and colleague. Neither, however, was immune to the virulent anticommunism of the immediate postwar years. China Hand is the story of a man who captured with wry and judicious insight the times in which he lived, both as observer and as actor.
