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 Post subject: General Stilwell
PostPosted: Sun Jan 31, 2016 6:48 pm 
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Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2013 8:12 pm
Posts: 438
I recently read Barbara Tuchman's book on General Stilwell entitled "Stilwell and the American Experience in China 1911-1945" and it exceeded my expectations on all levels, especially on what I thought I knew about General Stilwell, not to mention Tuchman's research and writing.

I knew he was an expert on China and could speak Chinese, but I didn't know before the war he was rated as the best division/corp commander in the US Army as he helped reform US infantry training in the 1930's and shown brighter than Patton during training exercises before the war. His nickname "Vinegar Joe" was given to him by officers not fond of his harsh and frank training of them during the 1930's as he was brutally truthful. In fact, he was amazingly honest throughout his career and hated pretentious and arrogant types especially.

He was to lead the Torch landings in Africa as early as January of 1942, but nobody suitable was available to keep Chiang Kai Shaik and China in the war fighting Japan and tie down around two dozen Japanese divisions in eastern and southern China. Simply put, China wasn't fighting and could have sought a separate peace with Japan at any time and was merely waiting for the allies to dispatch Japan so the Kuomintang could bide its time and take out Mao's Communist. Only Stilwell knew all the little details of the Chinese warlords and their armies, not to mention the Japanese. He travelled all over China as an intel officer in the 1920's and then the 1930's, often on foot as roads were lacking, and gathered information for the embassy and war department first hand. Nobody in the embassy or war department was as well versed on what was going on and knew all the players in China like Stilwell, yet Marshall regretted losing his best tactical commander to this obvious impossibly mission, as Marshall himself served in China with Stilwell in the 1920's, so he knew Stilwell's expertise first hand.

Tuchman's detailed explanation of the war in Burma and the story of the Flying Tigers fight with Stilwell are beyond anything expressed in general summations of the war by the media. Stilwell's personal bravery in Burma throughout the war is beyond the pale for any US general save those left behind in Bataan. Even Patton didn't get so close and as often to the front lines as Stilwell, nor pushed his men and staff as hard.

The leadership and role of the Flying Tigers is generally scorned and considered incompetent throughout the book, not just by the author and Stilwell, but by the War Department and General Marshall. Only FDR and China's Chiang supported them as a possibly cheap fix in China. This is particularly stunning stuff to read, not to mention well documented. It was surprising to read that the Flying Tigers and its leadership were being investigated for graft and running prostitution rings and it ran all the way to the top. This was well hid form the public due to wartime censors.

Stilwell's inside information concerning China's leadership and military were often frankly stated in official channels to both Marshall and the War Department and they knew exactly what the situation was there over and over again, contrary to rosy news coming from a suppressed media, which we still mostly hearing from censored to this day. Chinese divisions regularly lost 40% of their manpower due to disease mostly brought on by starvation, not to mention starvation itself. In communist controlled Yenan province, this wasn't the case, but the opposite.

I think if you read this book you will get a new angle on the war in the China-Burma-India theater and a new found regard for the efforts of General Stilwell, not to mention an insight to how Marshall was running the entire war along with how he dealt with FDR. You'll also see what horrible shape China was in historically and the foreshadowing of the fall of Nationalist China.

I highly recommend reading this book, not just for learning about the career of Stilwell, but also on the history of China. I've spent time in school and work in Asia and found Stilwell's story more amazing than I ever imagined. HIs brutal honesty and completely humble and down to earth nature make him a most compelling figure to read about, especially when contrasted to today's closely managed public relations media.

Best Regards,

Mark


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