Dixie Mission
U.S. Army Observation Group to Yan'an | |
---|---|
China Burma India Theater | |
Nickname(s) | Dixie Mission |
Commanders | |
Notable commanders | Colonel David D. Barrett |
The United States Army Observation Group (Chinese: 美軍觀察組; pinyin: Měijūn Guānchá Zǔ), commonly known as the Dixie Mission (Chinese: 迪克西使團; pinyin: Díkèxī Shǐtuán), was the first US effort to gather intelligence and establish relations with the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Liberation Army, then headquartered in the mountainous city of Yan'an, Shaanxi. The mission was launched on 22 July 1944, during World War II, and lasted until 11 March 1947.
The goals of the mission were to investigate the Communists politically and militarily and to determine if the US would benefit from establishing liaison. Communist local governments had cooperated in rescuing American pilots downed in North China after bombing Japan, and the invasion of Japan might still have been launched from China, which would have involved landing American troops in China.
Origin
Prior to the Dixie Mission, the US considered military interventions into Communist-held China, such as an unimplemented idea of the
The Roosevelt administration asked Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek for permission to send US observers to visit the Communists. Initially, Chiang was hostile to the proposal and delayed action. He consented after foreign correspondents whom he had permitted to visit Yan'an reported on the Communists to US readers.[3] Chiang agreed after American Vice-President Henry A. Wallace made a state visit to Chongqing, the Nationalists' capital, in late June 1944. John Carter Vincent, an experienced State Department China expert, assisted Wallace in persuading Chiang to allow the US to visit the Communists in Yan'an without Nationalist supervision. In exchange, the US promised to replace the American commander of the Burma India Theater, General Stilwell,[4] who was removed from command in October 1944.
Arrival in Yan'an
First arrivals
The first members of the Dixie Mission arrived in Yan'an on 22 July 1944, on an
The second half of the team arrived on 7 August and consisted of Raymond P. Ludden, Lieutenant Colonel Reginald E. Foss, Major Wilbur J. Peterkin, Major Charles E. Dole, Captain Brooke Dolan, Lieutenant Simon H. Hitch, 1st Lieutenant Louis M. Jones, Sergeant Walter Gress, and Technician 4th Class George I. Nakamura. Later, other members, including Koji Ariyoshi, joined the mission.[5]
At work in Yan'an
Service, while under Stilwell's command, served as a diplomatic observer for both Stilwell and the American embassy in Chongqing. Over the next three months, he sent a series of reports to Chongqing and sparked controversy immediately. Service praised the Communists and compared them to European socialists, rather than the feared Soviet Union.[6] Service credited the Communists for a clean and superior society, in stark contrast to the corruption and chaos that he saw in the Nationalist areas, which were controlled by Chiang. However, Service was accused of being biased by the Senate Committee of the U.S. Congress.[7] After visiting Yan'an, Service advocated that the US should work with the forces opposed to the Nationalists, such as the Communists, but he did not advocate abandoning Chiang.[8] That opinion was shared by John Paton Davies, a position that ruined both careers.
Colonel David Barrett evaluated the communists' military potential by observing war games between Communist troops and visiting war schools set up to train the Chinese officer corps. Barrett felt the Communists emphasized indoctrinating their soldiers over military training, but he believed that American advisors could train the Communist soldiers to become excellent fighters.[9]
The Americans were impressed by the Communists' attacks on the Japanese, often in guerilla raids.
Diplomacy
Hurley Mission
On 7 November 1944, General
Marshall and Wedemeyer Missions
Following the Japanese surrender, the Nationalists and the Communists resumed the Chinese Civil War, which they had set aside in the United Front to fight the Japanese in 1937. In December 1945, US President Harry S. Truman sent General George C. Marshall to China to negotiate a ceasefire and to form a unified government between the Communists and the Nationalists.[15] While Marshall spent most of his time in Chongqing, the Dixie Mission hosted Marshall in Yan'an so he could speak with the Communist leadership. Like Hurley, Marshall failed to develop a lasting compromise, and the Chinese Civil War resumed.
Truman then sent another representative to China, General
Question of Communist Party subterfuge
Dixie Mission participants such as John Service were criticized for viewing the Communist leadership as socialist agrarian reformers, who claimed that China under their rule would not follow the violent path of the Soviet Union under the Bolsheviks. Instead, socialism would come to China only after economic reforms that preserved capitalism to mature the society to a point that it would be prepared for a peaceful transition to a communist society. That belief was disseminated to the American people prior to and during the war by the popular authors Edgar Snow and Agnes Smedley. In his 3 August 1944 report, "The Communist Policy Towards the Kuomintang," Service underlined his opinion of the Communists as such and stated:
And the impressive personal qualities of the Communist leaders, their seeming sincerity, and the coherence and logical nature of their program leads me, at least, toward general acceptance of the first explanation – that the Communists base their policy toward the Kuomintang on a real desire for democracy in China under which there can be orderly economic growth through a stage of private enterprise to eventual socialism without the need of violent social upheaval and revolution.[18]
After the Dixie Mission, Colonel Barrett reflected upon this position and wrote in his memoir:
In addition, I had fallen to some extent, not as much perhaps as did some other foreigners, for the "agrarian reformer" guff. I should have known better than this, particularly since the Chinese Communists themselves never at any time made claim to being anything but revolutionaries – period.[19]
The history of China did not have the Communists pursue a slow gradual change in the economy, as some had believed in 1944. Regardless, 25 years later, Service believed that American co-operation with the Communists might have prevented the excesses that occurred under Mao Zedong's postwar leadership.[20] After the same number of years, John Davies, in his memoir, Dragon by the Tail, defended his belief that the Communist would have been a better Chinese ally for the US than the Kuomintang. Davies believes that the US interests would have been better served allying with the Communists based on realpolitik considerations. Allying with the Communists would have prevented it from allying with the Soviet Union and lessened the risk and anxiety that the US and the rest of the world experienced in the Cold War.[21]
Lasting impact
The Dixie Mission had consequences for individuals and the United States. Many participants were accused of being communists, such as John Davies and John Service. Both were subjected to multiple congressional investigations, which consistently found that they were not
Misperceptions of the Dixie Mission contributed to the nationwide
In 2013, the story of the Dixie Mission served as the historical basis for a new World War II novel, Two Sons of China, by Andrew Lam. It was released by Bondfire Books in December 2013.[29]
Nickname
While referred to as "Dixie" or the Dixie Mission, the true name of the mission was the United States Army Observation Group to Yan'an. One war scholar attributes the name to the number of Southerners in the mission's personnel. John Davies declared in his memoir, Dragon by the Tail, that the mission was called 'Dixie', as a reference to its location within "rebel" Communist-held territory, by himself and his peers, a glib comparison to the territory of the Confederate States of America.[30]
Notable members
- Colonel David D. Barrett (1892–1977), first commanding officer of the Dixie Mission.
- John S. Service (1909–1999), first State Department representative to arrive and operate as part of the Dixie Mission.
- John P. Davies(1908–1999), State Department official instrumental in the creation of the mission.
- Koji Ariyoshi (1914–1976), Hawaii labor editor and later a leader of the U.S.-China People's Friendship Association.
- Raymond P. Ludden (1909–1970), State Department officer who undertook dangerous mission into Japanese occupied China.
- Henry C. Whittlesey, a writer
- Colonel Raymond Allen Cromley
Dixie Mission Commanding Officers
- Colonel David D. Barrett
- Colonel Ivan D. Yeaton (1945-1946)[31][32]
- Colonel Morris DePass
- Colonel Wilbur J. Peterkin
- Major Clifford F. Young
- Colonel John Sells
- Colonel Raymond A. Cromley
See also
- Category:Dixie Mission participants
- Second Sino-Japanese War
- Wartime perception of the Chinese Communists
References
- ^ John Paton Davies to Secretary of State, 24 January 1944, "Observers' Mission to North China." State Department, NARA, RG 59.
- ^ John P. Davies, Jr., Dragon by the Tail: American, British, Japanese, and Russian Encounters with China and One Another (New York: W. W. Norton, 1972), 303.
- ^ Carolle J. Carter, Mission to Yenan: American Liaison with the Chinese Communists, 1944 – 1947(Lexington, KY: U of Kentucky Press, 1997), 20.
- ^ Carter, Mission to Yenan, 23.
- ^ a b David D. Barrett, Dixie Mission: The United States Army Observer Group in Yenan, 1944(Berkeley, CA: U of California, China Research Monographs, 1970), 13.
- ^ John Service, Report No. 5, 8 March 1944, to Commanding General Fwd. Ech., USAF – CBI, APO 879. "The Communist Policy Towards the Kuomintang." State Department, NARA, RG 59.
- ^ U.S. Congress. Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and the Other Internal Security Laws. The Amerasia Papers: A Clue to the Catastrophe of China. Vol. 1 (Washington, D.C.: GPO, 1970), 406 – 407.
- ^ John Service, Report No. 40, 10 October 1944, to General Stilwell, Commanding General, USAF – CBI.“The Need for Greater Realism in Our Relations with Chiang Kai-shek.” State Department, NARA, RG 59.
- ^ Barrett, Dixie Mission, 37.
- ^ John Service, Report No. 16, 29 August 1944, to Commanding General, USAF – CBI, "Desirability of American Military Aide to the Chinese Communist Armies." State Department, NARA, RG 59.Page one, two, three, four.
- J.A.G. Roberts, A Concise History of China, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard U Press, 1999), 247.
- ^ Davies, Dragon by the Tail, 365.
- ^ Russel D. Buhite, Patrick J. Hurley and American Foreign Policy (Ithaca, NY: Cornell U Press, 1973), 160 – 162.
- ISBN 0-313-32004-7. p. 201.
- ^ Carter, Mission to Yenan, 178.
- Albert C. Wedemeyer, Wedemeyer Reports! (New York: Henry Holt & Co., 1958), 382.
- ^ Carter, Mission to Yenan, 198.
- ^ John Service, Report No. 5, 8/3/1944, to Commanding General Fwd. Ech., USAF – CBI, APO 879. "The Communist Policy Towards the Kuomintang." State Department, NARA, RG 59. Page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
- ^ Barrett, Dixie Mission, 47.
- ^ John Service, The Amerasia Papers: Some Problems in the History of US – China Relations (Berkeley, CA: Center for Chinese Studies, U of California Press, 1971), 191 – 192.
- ^ Davies, Dragon by the Tail, 427 – 428.
- ^ Kaufman, Michael T. (24 December 1999). "John Paton Davies, Diplomat Who Ran Afoul of McCarthy Over China, Dies at 91 John Paton Davies, Diplomat Who Ran Afoul of McCarthy Over China, Dies at 91". The New York Times. Retrieved 15 August 2008.
John Paton Davies, a leading diplomat who was among the old China hands driven from the State Department after Senator Joseph McCarthy questioned their loyalty and labeled them Communist sympathizers in the 1950s, died yesterday at his home in Asheville, N.C. He was 91.
- ^ John Service Obituary at The New York Times
- ^ Carolle J. Carter, Mission to Yenan: American Liaison with the Chinese Communists, 1944 – 1947 (Lexington, KY: U of Kentucky Press, 1997), 215.
- ^ "China Expert John P. Davies Dies". mlloyd.org. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
- ^ Barrett,Dixie Mission, 79.
- ^ a b Kifner, John (4 February 1999). "John Service, a Purged 'China Hand,' Dies at 89". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 July 2009.
- ^ Wusun, Lin (25 August 2004). "Dixie Mission Remembered in Beijing". china.org.cn. China Internet Information Center. Retrieved 5 July 2009.
- ^ Lam, Andrew. Two Sons of China (978-1629213736) Colorado Springs, CO; Bondfire Books, 2014.
- ^ John Paton Davies, Jr., Dragon by the Tail: American, British, Japanese, and Russian Encounters with China and One Another (New York: W. W. Norton, 1972), 318.
- ^ "Register of the Ivan D. Yeaton papers". Online Archive of California.
- ^ "Marshall Mission Files, Lot 50–D270: Telegram. Colonel Ivan D. Yeaton, Commanding Officer of the Yenan Observer Group, to Lieutenant General Albert C. Wedemeyer. Yenan, December 20, 1945".
Sources
Primary sources
- 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).
- John Paton Davies, Dragon by the Tail: American, British, Japanese, and Russian Encounters with China and One Another (New York: W. W. Norton, 1972).
- Colonel Wilbur J. Peterkin, Inside China 1943–1945: An Eyewitness Account of America's Mission in Yenan (Baltimore: Gateway Press, 1992)
- Koji Ariyoshi, From Kona to Yenan: The Political Memoirs of Koji Ariyoshi, Beechert, Edward D., and Alice M. Beechert, eds, (Honolulu, HI: U of Hawai’i Press, 2000).
- Harrison Forman (1946). Report From Red China. London: Robert Hale.
- John Emmerson,The Japanese Thread: A Life in the U.S. Foreign Service(New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1978).
- Joseph W. Esherick, Lost Chance in China: The World War II Despatches of John S. Service (New York: Random House, 1974).
- Peter Vladimirov, The Vladimirov Diaries: Yenan, China: 1942–1945 (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1975).
Secondary sources
- Bergin, Bob (2019). "Intelligence Lost in Politics: The Dixie Mission 1944: The First US Intelligence Encounter with the Chinese Communists" (PDF). Studies in Intelligence. 63 (3): 11–30.
- Carolle J. Carter, Mission to Yenan: American Liaison with the Chinese Communists 1944–1947 (Lexington: University of Kentucky Press, 1997).
- E. J. Kahn, The China Hands: America's Foreign Service Officers and What Befell Them (New York: Viking Press, 1972, 1975).
- William P. Head, Yenan!: Colonel Wilbur Peterkin and the American Military Mission to the Chinese Communist, 1944–1945 (Chapel Hill, N.C.: Documentary Publications, 1987).
- Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland, United States Army in World War II, China-Burma-India Theater: Stilwell's mission to China (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1953).
- --------, United States Army in World War II, China-Burma-India Theater: Stilwell's Command Problems (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1956).
- --------, United States Army in World War II, China-Burma-India Theater: Time Runs Out in CBI (Washington, D.C.: Department of the Army, 1959).
- Kenneth E. Shewmaker, Americans and Chinese Communists, 1927–1945: A Persuading Encounter- (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1971).
- Tsou Tang, America's Failure in China, 1941–50 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Reissued in 2 pb. vols., 1975., 1963).
External links
- Chinese article on 60th Anniversary of Dixie Mission
- Story on Dixie from Nisei Perspective via Japanese American Veteran Association
- PDF of speech given by Dixie Mission Participant, Louis Jones, in 1987.
- Site on Dixie with many photographs by John "Jack" P. Klein, mission participant.
- Harrison Forman's photo collection of Yen'an (1944 & 1973). University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Library.