Dixie Mission
The Dixie Mission (also known as " The US Army Observer Group to Yenan ") under the direction of US - Colonel David D. Barrett was the investigation of the Chinese Communist Party to the goal.
The mission was launched during World War II on July 22, 1944 and lasted until March 11, 1947. The headquarters of the mission was in the mountain town of Yan'an . In addition to building relationships, further goals were to analyze the Communist Party of China politically and militarily in order to find possible reference points for the USA for further cooperation. John S. Service , from the United States Department of State , was responsible for analyzing the political situation and United States Army Col. David D. Barrett was responsible for analyzing military strength. They concluded that the Chinese Communist Party might be a useful ally for the war and post-war era. Overall, the situation in Yan'nan was classified as more energetic and less corrupt than in the nationalist areas of the Kuomintang .
After the Second World War, the Dixie Reports and Service and Barrett were condemned as communist by the pro-Kuomintang faction in the American government. Thus, many of the mission's participants fell victim to the McCarthy era . Service was fired from his position at the State Department and Barrett was denied promotion to brigadier general.
The Dixie Mission also includes the political missions of Patrick Hurley and George Marshall . The main aim of these was to unite the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang, but both missions failed. Later, the very existence of the Dixie Mission served as a positive reminder between the connection between China and America. Official connections were only resumed during the tenure of President Richard M. Nixon . Dixie Mission veterans were among the first to be invited to visit by the People's Republic of China.
The work of the Yan'nan Mission
John Service worked under four-star General Joseph Stilwell as a diplomat for the American Embassy in Chongqing . In the first three months, he sent several reports to Chongqing that immediately sparked a debate. Because he praised the Chinese Communist Party and compared it to European socialists. In addition, he paid tribute to her for a pure and sovereign society in contrast to the corruption and chaos that presented itself to him in the nationalist areas controlled by Chiang Kai-shek . After visiting Yan'nan, Stilwell advocated that the United States work with the Chinese Communist Party, although he did not advocate turning away from Chiang Kai-Shek. His opinion was supported by John Paton Davies . Stilwell was dismissed from his post as top US representative in the China-Burma-India war zone in October 1944, and Davies was dismissed in 1954 by then Secretary of State John Foster Dulles because of his previous position on the China question.
US Colonel David Barrett assessed the military potential of the communists by watching war games between communist groups and attending war schools to train the officer corps. Barrett realized that the communists were putting massive ideological influence above military training, but he believed that American advisors could train communist soldiers to be excellent fighters.
The Americans were impressed by the communist attacks on Japan, often carried out in guerrilla form. Meanwhile, the last communist military campaign against Japan was carried out four years earlier during the Chinese Communist Army's " Hundred Regiments Offensive ". After disastrous results, the communists then avoided major campaigns against the Japanese.
The arrival of the Dixie Mission in Yen'nan can be seen as the first step in the successful American pressure on the Kuomintang and confirmed the view of the Chinese Communist Party's leadership that the American government's policy had changed. Over the next five months, the communists were in an optimistic mood, generated both by the positive military outlook and by the cooperation with Washington. The communists enjoyed their current direct negotiations with Washington and the improvement of relations that were now better than ever.
Diplomacy during the Dixie Mission
Hurley Mission
On November 7, 1944, former Secretary of War and now Roosevelt's special envoy Patrick J. Hurley reached Yan'nan. It had been in various theaters of war in India, China and Burma since August as part of an agreement between US Vice President Wallace and Chiang Kai-shek to give Chiang a direct channel of communication with Roosevelt, bypassing Stilwell. Previously successful in private sector negotiations, Hurley was sent to China to improve relations between Chinese communists and nationalists so that they could unite into a common government. Hurley began his mission with no knowledge of the direction of the two parties, and hoped that the differences between the two parties would not be as great as that between the American Democrats and Republicans. His attempts at mediation failed in the fall of 1945 because the two warring parties were striving for power, and Hurley submitted his dismissal to President Truman at the end of November 1945 , not without blaming the members of the Dixie Mission, among others, for his failure. Following the Japanese surrender in September 1945, the Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party resumed their civil war, which they had temporarily resolved during the united front .
Marshall and Wedemeyer Mission
In December 1945, Truman sent General George C. Marshall to China to negotiate a ceasefire and form a united government between the Communist Party and the Kuomintang. Marshall, who spent most of his time in Chongqing, was received by the Dixie Mission during his visits to Yan'an in order to make contact with the communists. Marshall's efforts to develop a long-term compromise failed because of the intransigence of the two parties, as did Hurley before him. Thus the civil war became everyday again.
After Marshall's return, Truman sent another representative to China, General Albert Wedemeyer , who had commanded US troops in China during the war. Wedemeyer reported that U.S. interests would best be served by ongoing support for the Nationalist government, but Truman kept the report under wraps because he didn't want to commit unilaterally, but rather see who would win the civil war. After Wedemeyer's visit, US operations in Yan'nan were ended and everything that could not be transported on board a C-47 was liquidated . On March 11, 1947, the last members of the Dixie Mission left Yan'nan.
Effects
The Dixie mission had a great impact on all participants on the American side, but also on China. In America, the Dixie Mission contributed to the national fear of communism (also known as the " Red Fear" period) from 1950 to 1960. Many participants were charged as communists. It was not until 1970, with the tenure of President Richard M. Nixon, that the mission was shed in a new light and the participants became important sources of information for building relationships with China. Many of them were among the first Americans invited to visit China in 20 years. In China, the Dixie mission is seen as a positive time between the two nations and is a symbol of Sino-American cooperation.
Naming
The name Dixie Mission is derived as follows: "Dixie" was the American nickname for the communist areas in China. The name "Dixie" corresponded to the side of the insurgents and was taken from the hit "Is it true what they say about Dixie?" It says that in Dixie "the sun really shines all the time".
literature
- David D. Barrett: Dixie Mission - The United States Army Observer Group in Yenan , 1944 (Berkeley, CA: Center for Chinese Studies, U of California, 1970)
- John Colling: The Spirit of Yenan: A Wartime Chapter of Sino-American Friendship (Hong Kong: API Press, 1991)
Web links
- The Civil War in China, Part II - The Dixie Mission and Losing China (Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training)
Individual evidence
- ^ David Shavit: The United States in Asia. Greenwood Publishing Group, New York 1990, p. 131
- ↑ a b Arnold Xiangze Jiang: The United States and China, The University of Chicago, 1988, p 111
- ^ David Shavit: The United States in Asia. Greenwood Publishing Group, New York 1990, p. 131 /
- ↑ Maochun Yu: Oss in China . Ed .: Yale University Press. 1996, p. 253 .
- ^ The Civil War in China, Part II - The Dixie Mission and Losing China. Retrieved January 29, 2017 .
- ↑ James E. Hsiung & Steven I. Levine: China's bitter victory - The war with Japan 1937-1945 . Ed .: ME Sharpe. 1992, p. 124 .
- ^ David Shavit: The United States in Asia . Ed .: Greenwood Publishing Group. New York 1990, p. 256 .
- ↑ Arnold Xiangze Jiang: The United States and China . Ed .: The University of Chicago Press. 1988, p. 109, 111-113, 114-119 .
- ^ David Shavit: The United States in Asia . Ed .: Greenwood Publishing Group. New York 1990, p. 336 .
- ^ Herbert Feis: The China Tangle - The American Effort in China from Pearl Harbor to the Marshall Mission . Princeton University Press, 1953, pp. 355-430 .
- ^ Herbert Feis: The China Tangle - The American Effort in China from Pearl Harbor to the Marshall Mission . Princeton University Press, 1953, pp. 165 .
- ↑ Dieter Kuhn: The Second World War in China, Duncker and Humblot GmbH, 1999, p. 278