Stilwell the Patriot Read online

  In January 1918, President Woodrow Wilson had put to Congress his idea of an honourable settlement at the end of the war based on his Fourteen Points, and this was the basis on which Germany and other countries approached the Allies with peace feelers. In October Ludendorff, who had come so close to achieving victory, publicly advocated the rejection of the Fourteen Points, and was dismissed. By the beginning of November 1918, from the Baltic states in the north that sought nationhood, through eastern Europe threatened by Bolshevik revolution, through the ramshackle Hapsburg dominions stretching across the Balkans, most countries and aspiring countries sued for peace. In Germany, against the threat of red revolution supported by soldiers and sailors, the Kaiser abdicated, and the future of the country lay in untried hands. Facing this chaotic background, Wilson came to the Versailles Conference with his Fourteen Points, in response to which the cynical but realistic French premier Clemenceau commented, ‘The Good Lord needed only ten.’ Against the hard determination of Clemenceau and Lloyd George to ‘squeeze Germany till the pips squeak’, Wilson’s idealism was doomed. Throughout much of the world, expectations of justice and self-determination were raised only to be bitterly disappointed, and fudged decisions laid up dire peril for the future. The hopes of Ireland under Michael Collins were dashed. Lawrence of Arabia, who had masterminded the Arab revolt against the Turks based on a British promise of independence, saw those promises broken, and the foundation was laid for a century or more of conflict in the Middle East. Wilson, who commented ruefully that new nations were popping up every day that he had never heard of, had no solution to the cauldron of expectations and disappointments.

  Stilwell, serving as part of the occupation force in the pleasant wine-growing area of the Mosel valley and, like most serving soldiers at the end of a war, impatient to get home, made his usual stark comments. He regarded Wilson as ‘an addle-pated boob’ and showed little interest in the deliberations at Versailles. However, one part of those deliberations was to influence his career directly.

  When the war started in 1914, in the Far East both China and Japan joined the Allied cause hoping that the Allies would win and that the eventual peace settlement would bring them valuable benefits. In China the chaos and upheavals, which Stilwell had witnessed during his informative visit in 1911, had spread across the country as the so-called warlords profited from the lack of central control. The feeble government in Peking continued to clash with the Kuomintang, the government led by Sun Yat-Sen, which was based in the south and centred on Canton. Japan, which had already given evidence of its expansionist aims, clearly hoped that the war would provide the opportunity to increase its severe demands on China and, as well, to take over the Russian and German concessions. Under considerable Japanese pressure at the peace conference, Wilson unwisely agreed to the Japanese demand for Shantung. This small but crucial peninsula, pointing across the Yellow Sea towards Korea, lay just south of Peking. It had immense tactical and strategic military significance. The Shantung award caused riots and violent protest across China, which went some way to making the rival factions overcome their differences. In America, outbursts of strong anti-Japanese feeling were led by the already powerful Chinese lobby in Washington and by the widespread Chinese missionary support groups.

  In both the American and British armies many officers who had survived the carnage and gained higher rank were, when the war ended, reduced to their substantive rank and faced years of stagnation and frustration. Stilwell, back home in 1919 and reduced to the rank of captain, was relatively fortunate. Because of the excellent reports from both corps and divisional headquarters about his work in the final operations on the western front, together with his earlier successful posting to China, he was appointed as a military attaché in China. First, however, he had to spend a year at Berkeley to learn Chinese. Always fascinated by systems and methods – and usually able to suggest ways of improving them – he commented that although the course was adequate it should have taken place in China. In August 1920, after successfully completing the course and before they left for Peking, he and his wife Win bought a piece of land at Carmel near Monterey in California, intending to build a home for their family and retirement.

  The situation in China had seriously deteriorated since Stilwell’s visit in 1911. Rival military gangs led by bandits roamed the towns and countryside, and bullets and shells often landed in the affluent areas of Peking where the expatriates lived. Fighting raged over much of northern China, and Sun Yat-Sen, with the Kuomintang, tried without success to establish nationwide control. He felt he had been shamefully let down by the Allies in the post-war settlement, and he turned, briefly, to an alliance with the new Russian Communist party.

  Stilwell found routine headquarters life in Peking both boring and stultifying, and he was delighted when he had the opportunity to join a road-building operation in Shensi Province, about 400 miles southwest of Peking. A famine relief committee, backed by the Red Cross, supported the scheme, which was designed to assist the distribution of food during famines. He spent several months working on the project as an engineer adviser, living a hard life, little different from the Chinese coolies who formed his workforce. He revelled in the total immersion in Chinese life and language. At the time China was suffering from a severe famine, and Stilwell described the thousands of gaunt skeletons roaming the countryside and the putrefying corpses left by the roadside. He commented vividly on the suffering of the local people from starvation and also on the effect of opium, to which vast numbers were addicted. He castigated local officers and rulers for not dealing with the opium problem. His views were generally ignored, but he did meet one governor who was making a sincere attempt: to improve the conditions of his people – although even his work was overwhelmed and destroyed by the usual warring factions.

  While Stilwell was stationed in Peking in 1922, the Five Power Conference met in Washington and made significant decisions. Agreement was reached to ban the use of poison gas in war and attacks by submarines on merchant ships. Japan agreed to give up all rights and territories in China that had been acquired through the defeat of Germany and also agreed to the limitation of her naval rearmament. These decisions had a direct effect on Stilwell, who was sent to observe how well the provisions of the Washington Agreement were being carried out. He revelled in the opportunity and travelled, recording his acute observations, to Manchuria, Korea and Japan. Wherever he went in the Japanese-occupied areas he found the Japanese to be obstructive and unpleasant. He compared them to the Germans, though without the ability, summing them up as ‘arrogant little bastards’. After this fascinating and enlightening period of travel, which also took in the Yangtze valley, he, his wife and their young family returned home in 1923.

  * Theodore White (ed.), The Stilwell Papers, Macdonald, London, 1949. Unless otherwise stated, Stilwell’s quotations in this book are from The Stilwell Papers.

  * John Keegan, The First World War, Hutchinson, London, 1998, p. 441.

  CHAPTER 2

  The China Station

  On his return home in 1923, Stilwell spent several years improving his military credentials and qualifications, first at Fort Benning in Georgia and then at the more demanding General Staff School at Fort Leavenworth. Here he tackled a highly pressurised staff course in a more relaxed fashion than most. Eisenhower passed out first. After sharing in the 1918 victories, America seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, with the result that army numbers were reduced, finance for defence was whittled down and prospects of promotion almost disappeared. Stilwell faced this situation with foreboding, but his outstanding previous work in China and reputation gained in 1918 as a dedicated professional officer brought him an opportunity which he seized enthusiastically. He was offered the command of a battalion in the American force at Tientsin, the port city close to Peking, and, after a summer leave at Carmel in 1924, he and his family embarked again for China.

  Every time Stilwell returned to China he found dramatic and unexpected changes.
While he had been back in the USA the turmoil caused by irresponsible warlords and bandits had worsened, and the influence of Russia on Sun Yat-Sen and the Kuomintang had grown more powerful. With few options open to him, Sun Yat-Sen had gone along with the Russian advisers and had initiated a political policy, but in 1925 he suddenly died of cancer. The removal of his restraining hand created the chance for the advancement of Chiang Kai-Shek. Chiang had joined Sun Yat-Sen’s party in 1918. He became Commandant of the Whampoa Military Academy in 1923, and after Sun’s death in 1925 took over the Kuomintang. Several bloody incidents in 1925 and an effective left-wing propaganda campaign had whipped up countrywide fury against American and British influence and against the superior, condescending attitude of Christian missionaries.

  When the Stilwell family arrived in Tientsin in 1926, the Kuomintang forces were driving north towards Nanking and Shanghai. The period of uneasy alliance between the Communists – among whom Mao Tse-Tung was prominent – and the Kuomintang leaders was soon to end. Mao, whose insistence that guerrilla fighters should respect the people had contributed to the success of the revolutionary forces, now left the Kuomintang – just before Chiang turned on his erstwhile allies and wiped out most of the leadership in Shanghai. The expatriate communities became gravely and increasingly concerned as the warring Chinese troops approached Shanghai. In Nanking angry crowds attacked foreign people and property, and while the leaders dithered a massive exodus of expatriates took place – especially missionaries, of whom there were 12,000 in the country. Missionaries faced a dilemma, for they tended to support the Kuomintang because Sun Yat-Sen had been a Christian, and they faced embarrassment when Chiang’s nationalist forces demanded that people and companies in the Treaty Ports should be taxed and that the unjust Treaty regulations should be changed.

  Expatriate groups in Tientsin watched these developments with growing apprehension, and serious plans were made by the American army and marines to rescue expatriates from Peking should it be necessary. Somewhat to the chagrin of the army, the marines arrived with guns, tanks and planes. In a highly volatile situation the American forces needed reliable, accurate information, and they chose Major Stilwell as the obvious person to travel through the war-torn area to observe and gather information. Glad to escape the stuffy and static military life of the legation, which he had always disliked, Stilwell was nevertheless anxious about leaving his pregnant wife and four children.

  He and a Chinese colleague set out by rail for Hsuchow, about 300 miles south of Tientsin and more than halfway to Nanking and Shanghai. On this long journey Stilwell faced very real danger. Rival armed gangs disputed control at the stations and on the trains, and crowds panicked at the approach of any armed group. As far as possible Stilwell kept himself hidden because of the violent, xenophobic feelings among the tightly packed crowds on the train. Many wanted him taken off and shot. After facing appalling danger in Hsuchow, he and his colleague managed to board a train going south towards Shanghai. They went through an area where the Kuomintang forces dominated and, although they were less anti-American, the crowds at the stations and on the train were, if anything, more hostile. Again, many demanded that the foreigner should be taken off the train and shot. His Chinese colleague probably saved Stilwell’s life by demanding to be taken to Chiang Kai-Shek himself, saying that there would be serious trouble for anyone who tried to stop them. They kept up this bluff until they reached Shanghai, where, starving, dehydrated and totally exhausted, they left the train and ran for their lives. They managed to reach the International Settlement, and from there they were able to get to the USS Pittsburg, which was lying off shore and where at last they found safety.

  Stilwell sent in a detailed report backed up by acute observations about the Kuomintang forces and comparing them favourably to the rabble under the warlords in the north. He was highly commended by the senior American commanders for his bravery and determination and for his excellent report.

  In 1928, in a bizarre situation that arose when the General Officer Commanding became mentally unstable, Stilwell was promoted to lieutenant colonel and became his chief of staff. He rapidly became the leader and mentor of the American community, giving lectures and writing articles that displayed his outstanding grasp of Chinese affairs. He commented shrewdly on the sinister incident when Japanese forces deliberately tried to provoke a fight with Chiang, who, realising his weakness, wisely withdrew. The Chinese people deeply resented the insult and boycotted Japanese goods. Stilwell warned that the Japanese could easily overrun the ports, the railways and the developed areas along the east coast. Chiang was not able to challenge the Japanese, but he was strong enough to push aside the northern warlords and he arrived at Tientsin with the Kuomintang forces. Although he was now nominally leader of China, the reality was different. He called the warlords to a disbandment conference, but, as long as they commanded hundreds of thousands of troops, they simply ignored his pleas. Mayhem and chaos continued across China. Stilwell, now established as a recognised and respected expert on China, returned home with his large family in 1929.

  Many of the American army commanders of the Second World War had, like Stilwell, served under General Pershing on the western front in 1918. Pershing, an inspiring leader, had created a nucleus of forward-thinking leaders, who would wield great influence in the world to come. Among these George Marshall was the most influential, and he was destined to play a vital role in Stilwell’s career.

  Marshall severely criticised the rigid textbook attitude of much military training in the army and, after serving in China, where he had witnessed Stilwell’s outstanding work, he returned to the USA to take command of the infantry school at Fort Benning. From this key position Marshall determined to carry out a revolution in the training of infantry officers. He picked out Stilwell to be his second-in-command because he knew of Stilwell’s cogent and forceful attitude to stuffiness and mediocrity.

  Stilwell relished the opportunity this gave him to break away from the shackles of training manuals, and he focused the training of young infantry officers on the need to make decisions in the uncertain chaos of battle, when the view of the platoon or company commander, who can see the ground, is very different from that of more senior commanders further back. He used the thickly wooded country around Fort Benning to reinforce this point. Marshall considered Stilwell to be an absolutely outstanding instructor who stimulated his students to face the real problems that junior infantry commanders would face in war. The passion to see and understand the problem of the infantry commander on the ground never deserted Stilwell, and even when in 1944 he was Deputy Commander of South East Asia Command, surrounded by the pompous ceremonial he hated, he frequently returned to his Chinese battalions trudging through the Huckawng valley of northern Burma. Widely respected at Fort Benning as an inspiring instructor, he was also renowned as a severe critic of those who did not reach his exacting standards, and this led to his nickname of Vinegar Joe – which he treasured.

  While Stilwell was establishing himself at Fort Benning, events took place in the Far East that led ultimately to the Pacific war in which he was to play a significant role. In 1931, Japan, having created a phoney incident, seized Mukden and began a systematic advance through Manchuria. This proved a damaging blow to the Kellogg–Briand Pact of 1928, which the major powers, including Japan, had signed, and which renounced the use of war except in self-defence. In the USA the government announced the Stimson Doctrine, under which agreements achieved by force would not be recognised, and the League of Nations despatched a commission under the British peer Lord Lytton. While the Lytton Commission was on its way to the Far East, Japan defiantly set up the puppet state of Manchukuo under a Chinese boy emperor. The Chinese spontaneously rose up against the Japanese aggression and threatened the 30,000 Japanese troops stationed in Shanghai. Claiming to act in self-defence and for the protection of its citizens, Japan used ground, naval and air forces to attack the Chinese part of the city. After several months of increa
sing international pressure, Japan accepted a cease-fire and withdrew Stimson considered the Japanese action to be the greatest shock to international morality since 1914. In Japan the war party won an overwhelming election victory. The Japanese government claimed that, because of the chaos in China, the Kellogg–Briand Pact was not binding. Claiming again that it was acting in self-defence, it rejected the Lytton report and withdrew from the League of Nations. The Manchuria crisis presaged the downfall of the League of Nations and should have warned the world of Japans aggressive intent. In the face of the Japanese military advance Chiang Kai-Shek, who was in too weak a position to oppose it, shrewdly withdrew and concentrated instead on opposing the guerrilla attacks of the Chinese Communists under Mao Tse-Tung.*

  In 1934 Stilwell concluded his stint at Fort Benning but found himself faced with few attractive options. After applying unsuccessfully for an overseas appointment, he accepted a posting to San Diego to a training assignment with a reserve corps. He was seriously depressed – as was Marshall at this time – and felt that as a lieutenant colonel aged fifty-one he had little future in the army. Although his work with Marshall was to stand him in good stead and he had left Fort Benning with a reputation as a very able instructor, he was also known as a character who was prickly, over-sensitive and pernickety. He was renowned for his caustic comments about pettifogging rules and for his outspoken contempt for what he called ‘the machine’. However, the San Diego posting at least enabled him and the family to oversee the building of their home at Carmel. He even considered retiring from the army but, with the massive unemployment of the early 1930s, he realised that staying in the army was probably his best option.