In this thought provoking article, Anne Carroll examines the U.S. policy towards Nationalist China during the Chinese Civil War. She carefully reveals as a result of her historical research a serious lack of vision on the part of U.S. policy makers. It is an important study which points the way towards a sounder American policy in the future. The loss of China to Communism is one of the great tragedies of our century, and the key question that rapidly emerges from any study of the Chinese Civil War is "Who lost China?".
There are many who think they have the answer. Brian Crozier blithely entitles his biography of Chiang Kai-shek .1 During the early days of the Cold War, the answer immediately given by conservatives was the U.S., or more specifically the U.S. State Department China Hands with an assist from General George Marshall. Liberals just as immediately replied, "China was not ours to lose." The more thoughtful authors have recognized a complex of causes, though the majority of them ultimately blame Chiang and the Kuomintang (KMT) and either ignore the U.S. role or exonerate the U.S. But no one concerned about the U.S.'s relationship with anti- Communist Freedom Fighters around the world today can afford to ignore America's part in the loss of the world's largest country to Communism.
To fully understand the U.S. role, however, the whole complex of factors surrounding Mao Tse-tung's victory in China must be understood. Let us first examine factors contributing to the fall of China that are mostly independent of Chiang and U.S. officials.
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