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  Stilwell with Chiang Kai-Shek and Madame. A rare happy photograph, which contrasts dramatically with their later estrangement

  Copyright © 2005 by David Rooney

  Foreword © 2016 by Skyhorse Publishing

  First Skyhorse Publishing edition 2016

  Previously published in Great Britain in 2005 by Greenhill Books/Lionel Leventhal Ltd.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

  Cover design by Rain Saukas

  Cover photo: Getty Images

  Maps drawn by Derek Stone

  Print ISBN: 978-1-5107-0360-5

  Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-0369-8

  Printed in the United States of America

  Contents

  List of Illustrations

  List of Maps

  Foreword to the Paperback Edition

  Preface

  1 Early Days

  2 The China Station

  3 Pearl Harbor and After

  4 The Retreat from Burma

  5 Taking Stock

  6 Regrouping

  7 1943: More Frustration

  8 The Cairo Conference

  9 Back to Burma

  10 March-April 1944: Crisis

  11 The Drive to Myitkyina

  12 The Battle for Myitkyina

  13 Wider Issues

  14 Showdown in Chungking

  15 Finale

  16 Retrospect

  Select Bibliography

  Illustrations

  Stilwell with Chiang Kai-Shek and Madame

  Stilwell watches US sergeants instructing Chinese troops in weapon training (Robert Hunt Library)

  Merrill’s Marauders clean their rifles and light machine guns (Imperial War Museum)

  Madame Chiang Kai-Shek at an NBC studio (Robert Hunt Library)

  General Orde Wingate (Imperial War Museum)

  Brigadier Mike Calvert at Mogaung (Imperial War Museum)

  A Dakota releases supplies by parachute (Imperial War Museum)

  Pick’s Pike Life Line (Robert Hunt Library)

  The Burma Road (Imperial War Museum)

  The Cairo Conference (Imperial War Museum)

  Chinese and American soldiers view a Buddha in Nankan (Imperial War Museum)

  Chiang Kai-Shek and Madame with General Claire Chennault (Robert Hunt Library)

  American tanks with Chinese crews en route to Myitkyina (Imperial War Museum)

  Doctor Gordon Seagrave (Imperial War Museum)

  Stilwell with his son (Imperial War Museum)

  Maps

  Japanese Attacks, December 1941–April 1942

  China, 1939

  Burma, 1942

  The Walawbum Battle, March 1944

  The Japanese Attack, March 1944

  The Drive to Myitkyina

  Myitkyina

  Salween Attacks, Autumn 1944

  Ichigo Offensive against the Kuomintang, 1944

  Foreword to the Paperback Edition

  When Joseph Stilwell was sent to China in February, 1942, to take charge of American forces in the China-India-Burma Theater, there was no doubt that he was the most qualified man in the country for the job. A career military officer and West Point graduate, he had distinguished himself as a battlefield commander in World War I, and so impressed the top brass that he was retained in the armed forces despite the great post-war demobilization. Though impatient of army routine, he excelled as a staff officer, and spent the interwar period turning himself into a genuine “China hand.” His first taste of China had come as early as 1911, and in the course of subsequent postings there he traveled extensively and came to know the country well. He was one of a tiny handful of American military officers with a good command of the Chinese language. He was obviously the man for the job of coordinating the war effort with the Chinese government and the military authorities of the British colonies of India and Burma.

  He was also, unfortunately, thin-skinned, prickly, and hard to get along with. His years in China had given him an abiding respect and affection for the ordinary Chinese soldier, but an equal degree of contempt for the Chinese high command, starting with generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Similarly, he had great respect for the British troops and for Indian soldiers serving under British command, but was openly scornful of the “Limey” officer corps (with a few exceptions, notably General Slim), whom he thought of as class-ridden, effete, and ineffectual. In a job that called for delicate diplomacy, Stilwell was no diplomat; in many ways he was his own worst enemy.

  David Rooney, the author of this compact, admiring biography, is British, and he brings to his portrait of Stilwell a perspective that will be new to most American readers. For example, he emphasizes the Burma campaign, whereas most American writers focus on Stilwell in China. His take on Stilwell is also refreshing; he portrays Stilwell as above all else an American patriot, dedicated to protecting America’s interests in the war years. Setting aside his qualms about defending the British empire, he fought fiercely and stubbornly in the ultimately unsuccessful effort to prevent Japan’s conquest of Burma. In China, a morass of treachery and deceit, he worked tirelessly to shore up resistance to the Japanese juggernaut. The animosity he felt for “Peanut” Chiang was not based on personal pique, but on the correct perception that Chiang was sequestering much of America’s aid not to fight the Japanese, but to bolster his position in the civil war that was bound to break out after Japan’s defeat by the Americans. The situation became untenable, and eventually Stilwell was recalled–rightly so, because personal animosities were impeding the war effort, though subsequent events proved that Stilwell’s basic understanding of the political situation in China was correct.

  Today in Chungking, Chiang’s wartime capital, one can visit Stilwell’s headquarters, lovingly restored and turned into a small museum. Where one might expect to find a polemic, focusing on Stilwell’s conflict with and critique of Chiang Kai-shek, the exhibits emphasize Stilwell’s status as a true friend of China who played a key role in the country’s defense against Japan under very difficult circumstances. Like the museum, Rooney gets it right: Stilwell, for all his faults, never swerved from doing his duty.

  —John S. Major

  Preface

  Having served in India in 1945 at the end of the Burma War, and having studied and written about the Burma campaign for more than ten years, I am familiar with the career of Vinegar Joe Stilwell. A dramatic and abrasive character, he inspired deep loyalty and an equally strong antagonism. His character and actions impinge on most aspects of the war in Burma, and particularly on the great issue of American involvement with Chiang Kai-Shek in China. In attempting to assess Stilwell’s character and his achievements, the only interpretation that makes sense is that he was driven all the time by
a strong patriotism. He tried to ensure that the vast American investment of men, money and supplies in helping China should be properly and effectively used in fighting the Japanese. He met Chiang Kai-Shek early in 1942 – before the Burma retreat – and realised that Chiang was double-dealing on a colossal scale. He was using Lend–Lease supplies not to fight the Japanese but to strengthen his position among the Chinese warlords and to stockpile ready for the showdown he expected with the Communists after the Allies had defeated Japan. Stilwell devoted the rest of his life, until his untimely death in 1946, to an attempt to alert the American people to Chiang’s chicanery and to the reality of the situation in China. Unfortunately for America and the world, his views, which could have had great significance for the history of China, were stifled and then extinguished by his early death.

  In addition to the China issue, I have attempted to give a balanced appraisal of Stilwell’s military achievements, taking into account both American and British views, and to assess his contribution in the wider context of the Burma War. I trust that this book will be clear, lucid and readable. To assist the reader who may be unfamiliar with the geography of either Burma or China, there is a series of sketch maps which contain almost all the place names that appear in the text. Since 1945 place names in China have changed, as have those in Burma (Myanmar). To avoid confusion I have used the contemporary names from the time of the Second World War.

  Finally I should like to express my sincere thanks for help in preparing this book to my daughter, Kathy Rooney; to the staff of the Cambridge University Library; to Diane and Jim Gracey, formerly of Blackstaff Press, for their greatly appreciated typing and computer skills; and to Michael Leventhal, David Watkins and their colleagues at Greenhill Books for their encouragement.

  DAVID ROONEY

  CHAPTER 1

  Early Days

  Joseph W. Stilwell – known for several decades of his military service as Vinegar Joe – was a lieutenant general commanding III Corps in California when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. A gifted linguist, fluent in French and Spanish, he had served in China on different postings and in different capacities on and off since 1911. No senior American officer had Stilwell’s wealth of experience in China, yet in the weeks after Pearl Harbor it appeared that he was destined for the European or North African theatre of operations. He was called to Washington and had urgent discussions with Eisenhower about possible landings at Dakar or Casablanca.

  We know his thoughts and his acerbic comments about every aspect of the war because, during a career characterised by prolonged and acute frustration, he kept a diary, which he used to let off steam and ease his frustrations. The diary was never intended for publication but, fortunately for posterity, after his death in 1946, which occurred tragically soon after his retirement, it was published as The Stilwell Papers,* which have been used extensively since. They have contributed substantially to the image of a tough, competent, irascible, colourful and opinionated commander who reserved his fiercest criticism for Chiang Kai-Shek and, equally, for the snooty upper-class English officers – the ‘Limeys’ – with whom he came into contact. This image is unfortunate, for although his colourful comments are indisputable, he was an outstandingly able commander with an unrivalled knowledge of the whole China situation, and if he had not been sacrificed by Roosevelt in 1944 for political expediency he could have saved the American administration from major and costly blunders in the years after 1945.

  Stilwell was born in 1883 into a wealthy and old-established American family. Bright and precocious, he was expelled from school for a prank, and this led to him joining the army. From his entry to West Point in 1900 he was always a loner, rejecting the heavy-drinking group and becoming a fitness fanatic. He was commissioned into the infantry in 1904. Substantial changes in army administration were then taking place as a result of the blunders that happened during the Cuban campaign of 1898.

  Fighting still continued in the Philippines, and Stilwell volunteered to serve there as the only place he was likely to see action. He rapidly established a reputation as a highly professional officer who was fiercely concerned for the welfare of his men. He took part in several campaigns in jungle territory against rebel groups and was commended for leadership and initiative.

  He studied Spanish seriously, and in 1906 he returned to West Point as a language instructor and then spent summer leaves visiting the downtrodden areas of South America and Mexico. He always took an intense interest in the conditions of the people and made notes about every aspect of their lives. He fiercely criticised the corrupt and uncaring regimes, usually backed by American big business, that kept the people in abject poverty – a view shared by Che Guevara some fifty years later.

  At this stage of his career he was eager for overseas postings and, after marrying in 1910, he and his wife Winifred (Win) sailed for the Philippines in 1911. After a short stay there, while his wife returned home he briefly visited Japan and then travelled on to China, the country that was destined to be the backdrop to the most dramatic part of his career. He arrived in Shanghai, the largest of the so-called Treaty ports, lying on the Yangtze river, which to his surprise had the appearance of a western city. From the start he studied and took notes on every aspect of this new and fascinating experience and began the difficult task of learning the language.

  During the nineteenth century when, after the Opium Wars, the European powers grabbed the Treaty ports, Chinas isolation was slowly broken down and her weakness exposed to the predatory powers of the West. In the 1880s, with European arrogance, France took part of Indo-China, Britain took part of Burma, and Japan, already emerging as a threat, took Korea, Formosa and a foothold on the mainland of Manchuria. Greedy western nations grabbed commercial concessions and naval bases, and the United States joined in with economic penetration and vigorous missionary activity. 1899 witnessed a wild flare-up by the Chinese against western domination, and the rebels, in the Boxer Rebellion, launched powerful attacks on the foreign legations in Peking. European armies rescued the legations, spread fire and destruction, and exacted further humiliating concessions. The uprisings, some led by Sun Yat-Sen, caused widespread chaos across the country. This was the historical background to the situation which Stilwell found when he arrived in 1911.

  Always eager to eschew the cocktail-party circuit, Stilwell obtained permission to travel from Shanghai to the far south to visit Canton and Wuchow, where there had been serious uprisings, and also Hong Kong. Here he admired the British soldiers but made the first of many critical comments about the foppish upper-class English officers. He returned to Shanghai with a valuable collection of meticulous observations and colourful comments. In December 1911 he returned to the Philippines, and then to the USA.

  His intellectual, academic and linguistic ability had been recognised and in 1912 he was reappointed to the staff of West Point. He always disliked the humdrum routine of army life, and almost immediately he obtained a transfer to Madrid to brush up his Spanish. He was still in Spain when he heard the news of the murder in Sarajevo of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914. When war was declared, seeing the chance to observe war at first hand, he applied – unsuccessfully – for a posting as an observer with the French army.

  The American public, accustomed to seeing war as a frontier skirmish or modest foreign adventure in Cuba or the Philippines, with no likelihood of a threat to the homeland, had never accorded the military a high priority, and in 1914 the army was ill-prepared to take part in a modern war. Something of a dress-rehearsal had taken place in 1916 when General Pershing led a punitive expedition against Mexico with infantry, cavalry, artillery and even some air squadrons, but their enemy, the Mexican insurgent Pancho Villa, was hardly of the calibre of the German army. By 1916 the US forces had increased to more than 200,000, but, in addition to the task of training huge numbers of officers and men, the whole apparatus of command and staff had to be created almost from scratch. There had been little organisation for ac
tion at division level, let alone at corps or army level, and no machinery existed for the co-ordination of infantry, artillery and cavalry. It was a remarkable achievement that within a few months of the USA entering the war in April 1917, seven divisions were able to cross the Atlantic and hurry forward to bolster the Allies on the western front. Pershing, an aggressive cavalryman, saw the American task as conducting a war of movement, and he correctly and resolutely refused the urgent pleas from the Allied commanders to use American units to plug the gaps in their ranks caused by the hundreds of thousands of casualties.

  Stilwell arrived in France with the main force late in 1917. Early in 1918, after a brief liaison with a British division – which stimulated some pithy comments – he joined a French unit near Verdun. He was about to witness and take part in the dramatic finale of the war. Despite the sickening casualties of the previous years, in March 1918 Ludendorff launched an offensive with forty divisions released from the eastern front by Russia’s withdrawal from the war after the Bolshevik revolution. Ludendorff hoped to use the eastern divisions to achieve victory before the American forces could be fully and effectively mobilised on the western front, and he nearly succeeded. Under the pressure of the crisis created by the Ludendorff offensive the Allies at last agreed to a unified command under Foch, and Pershing, always sensitive to issues of independence, reluctantly agreed.

  Frustration played a large part in Stilwell’s later life, and it started on the western front when, because of his fluent French and staff experience, he was forced to undertake the necessary staff work and his applications to join a combat unit were refused. An ambitious professional soldier, it galled him to see officers who were considerably junior to him rising to higher ranks because of the losses in the fighting units.

  In spite of his frustrations, Stilwell played a significant role in the major American operation of the war. Promoted to lieutenant colonel, he supervised the training and organised the main intelligence briefings in preparation for the attack of the American First Army that took place at St Mihiel on 7 September 1918. Described by John Keegan as ‘an undoubted victory’,* the American divisions not only defeated the opposing German units but captured 13,000 prisoners. This operation, in which Stilwell, Marshall, MacArthur and Patton all took part, showed that the American forces were trained and ready to play an effective part in the war. With the ultimate failure of the Ludendorff offensive, this American battle had a significant impact on the German attitude to surrender.