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Abstract
This article analyzes America’s China policy during the Chinese civil war and traces the historical circumstances leading to the formulation of the decision to replace Chiang Kai-shek as the top leader of Nationalist China. During the last months of 1947, as the civil war intensified, US policy-makers became convinced that a war-ridden China would inevitably return to a condition of disintegration and regionalism. It was within this conceptual framework that a new Taiwan formula began to take shape. This assessment translated into a belief that it was imperative for Washington to search for suitable candidates to lead regional anti-communist movements. With figures like Sun Liren and K. C. Wu being supported by Washington to lead Taiwan, resentment toward the United States grew on the part of Chiang, as he saw the island as his last territorial refuge.
The authors would like to take this opportunity to thank the following institutions for assistance in research: Academia Historica (Taipei), US National Archives and Records Administration (College Park, Maryland), British National Archives (London), and Hoover Institution Library and Archives, Stanford University (California). John Raisian, director of the Hoover Institution, and David Brady, deputy director of the Hoover Institution and acting director of the Hoover Library and Archives, renders enormous support and encouragement for this research project. David Chang Cheng, Ming K. Chan, Joseph Esherick, John Garver, Chi-kwan Mark, Leo Soong, and Paul H. Tai read early draft of the manuscript and provided helpful comments and criticism. Special thanks go to Paul Thomas, the Hoover Institution librarian, for his help in preparing this manuscript for submission.
Notes
1 The story was first revealed by Wellington Koo to Chiang Ching-kuo when the latter visited the United States in October 1953. See Chiang’s diary entry for October 23, 1953, Box 53, Chiang Kai-shek Diaries, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University (hereafter CKSD).
2 On the mysteries surrounding the coup against Chiang in 1950, see, for example, Thomas J. Schoenbaum, Waging Peace and War: Dean Rusk in the Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson Years (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988), 209; Leonard A. Kusnitz, Public Opinion and Foreign Policy: America’s China Policy, 1949–1979 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1984), 33; Ronald L. McGlothlen, Controlling the Waves: Dean Acheson and US Foreign Policy in Asia (New York: W. W. Norton, 1993), 104–27.
3 See, for example, Chiang’s entries for January 9 and 17, March 4 and 11, June 7 and 26, 1950, Box 48, CKSD.
4 For a detailed examination of the Sun Liren affair, see Shen Keqin, Sun Liren Zhuan (The Biography of Sun Liren), 2 (Taipei: Xuesheng shuju, 1998), 693–825.
5 Li Yunhan, Zhongguo Guomindang Shishu (A Historical Narrative of the KMT), 3 (Taipei: KMT Party Historical Committee, 1994), 687.
6 Research project entitled “Order of Battle of the Chinese Communist Armed Forces,” Intelligence Division, War Department General Staff, August 27, 1947, Record Group (hereafter RG) 319, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Box 2900, US National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland (hereafter NARA II).
7 See, for example, Jay Taylor, The Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009), 373–74; Christopher R. Lew, The Third Chinese Revolutionary Civil War, 1945–49 (London: Routledge, 2009), 74–85.
8 Shen, Sun Liren Zhuan, 2: 463–76.
9 Chief of Naval Operations memorandum entitled “Note on China by Commander Naval Forces Western Pacific,” dated October 7, 1947, RG 218, Geographical File 1946–47, Entry: UD 4, 190: 1, NARA II. See also George H. Kerr, Formosa Betrayed (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1965), 353–55.
10 Chiang’s diary entry for June 19, 1947, Box 46, CKSD. There is no indication that Chiang’s decision to send Sun to Taiwan was a result of the political pressure from the United States.
11 Chiang’s diary entry for June 18, 1947, Box 46, CKSD.
12 Ralph Stevenson (British ambassador to China) to Foreign Office, June 19, 1947, Foreign Office Records (hereafter FO) 371/63325, F9883/76/10, British National Archives, London (hereafter BNA).
13 See Qin Xiaoyi, ed., Zhonghua Minguo Zhongyao Shiliao Chubian — Dui Ri Kang Zhan Shiqi (First Selection of Historical Materials on the Republic of China — the Period of the War Against Japan), 7:2 (Taipei: KMT Party Historical Committee, 1981), 892–905.
14 Chiang’s diary entry for June 26, 1947, Box 46, CKSD.
15 Su-feng Wu, “Song Ziwen yu Jianshe xin Guangdong” (T. V. Soong and the Construction of New Guangdong), in Donghua Renwen Xuebao (Dong Hwa Journal of Humanities) (Taiwan), 5 (July 2003), 129–30.
16 Minute of conversation between T. V. Soong and Hiram A. Boucher (US Consul-General in Guangzhou), enclosed in US Embassy in China to State Department, October 7, 1947, RG 59, Records of the Department of State, Decimal Files 893·00/10-747, NARA II. See also Wu Jingping, Song Ziwen Pingzhuan (A Critical Biography of T. V. Soong) (Fuzhou: Fujian renmin chubanshe, 1998), 520–21.
17 These “bandits” were originally anti-Japanese guerrilla forces in Guangdong during the Sino-Japanese war. After the war, part of the forces refused to be disbanded and later regrouped under the Chinese Communist Party’s remote control. See Guangdong Provincial Archives, ed., Dongjiang Zongdui Shiliao (Source Materials on the East River Column) (Guangzhou: Guangdong renmin chubanshe, 1984), 7–12.
18 Sun Liren to T. V. Soong, December 20, 1947, Box 9, T. V. Soong Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University (hereafter TVSP).
19 See Sun Liren to T. V. Soong, April 16, 1948; Sun to Soong, September 24, 1948, Box 9, TVSP.
20 Lester Little to T. V. Soong, November 19, 1947; Soong to Little, November 20, 1947, Box 36, TVSP.
21 Leighton Stuart to Little, December 2, 1947; Little to Yu Hongjun (Nationalist Minister of Finance), December 5, 1947, Box 6, TVSP. Nanking received no response from Washington regarding the needed loan for the Customs forces.
22 T. V. Soong to US Naval Advisory Group Survey Board (Guangzhou), December 29, 1947; Memorandum entitled “Establishment of Separate Water Police in Kwangtung Province,” by A. L. Rorschach (US Navy), dated December 29, 1947, Box 36, TVSP.
23 Rorschach to Soong, January 7, 1948, Box 36, TVSP.
24 T. V. Soong to Jiang Biao, April 10, 1948, Box 19, TVSP. The Control Yuan (監察院 Jianchayuan) later proposed the impeachment of Soong for his unauthorized purchase of these planes. See Wu Jingping, Song Ziwen Zhengzhi Shengya Biannian (A Chronology of T. V. Soong’s Political Careers) (Fuzhou: Fujian renmin chubanshe, 1998), 533.
25 See telegrams from T. V. Soong to Jiang Biao, May 27, September 11, November 4, December 1, 1948, and January 3 and 26, 1949; Jiang to Soong, September 29, November 6, December 3, 1948, and January 25, 1949; Box 19, TVSP.
26 Alexander Grantham (Hong Kong Governor) to Soong, June 4, 1948, Box 36, TVSP.
27 “Memorandum of Agreement between the Central Bank of China and the Government of Hong Kong,” August 15, 1947, Box 29, TVSP.
28 Foreign Office minute by George Kitson, dated August 11, 1948, FO 371/63331, F10250/76/10, BNA.
29 H. L. Hsieh to T. V. Soong, January 3, 1948; William Youngman to Soong, February 27, 1948, Box 19, TVSP.
30 Lanxin Xiang, Recasting the Imperial Far East: Britain and America in China, 1945–1950 (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1995), 127–34.
31 Chiang’s diary entry for May 19, 1948, Box 46, CKSD.
32 Report by the CCP Guangdong-Guangxi border region committee, dated February 3, 1949, in Guangdong Geming Lishi Wenjian Huiji, 49: 526–45.
33 British War Office memorandum entitled “Will China Disintegrate?” enclosed in Foreign Office minute paper written by A. L. Scott, July 7, 1947, FO 371/63325, F9309/76/10, BNA.
34 Ralph Stevenson to Foreign Office, April 30, 1947, FO 371/63322, F5994/76/10, BNA.
35 US Embassy in China to State Department, August 6, 1947, RG 59, 893.00/8-647, NARA II. In July 1948 T. V. Soong confirmed to American diplomats in Guangzhou that General Li was indeed harboring some “interesting ideas” about China’s future, but did not believe Li would gain wide support. See Raymond P. Ludden (US Consul-General in Guangzhou) to State Department, July 22, 1948, RG 59, 893.00/7-2248, NARA II. For the meeting between Soong and Li concerning establishing a new power base in South China, see also Jiang Ping, Li Jishen Quanzhuan (A Comprehensive Biography of Li Jishen) (Beijing: Tuanjie chubanshe, 2002), 237–41.
36 US Embassy in Nanking to the American Consular Officers in China, Subject: “Separatist Tendencies in China,” July 21, 1947, RG 84, Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State, 800/China, NARA II.
37 See: Stuart to State Department, March 4, 1948, RG 59, 893.00/3-448; Stuart to State Department, March 8, 1948, RG 59, 893.00/3-848; Stuart to State Department, May 14, 1948, RG 59, 893.00/5-1448; Stuart to State Department, July 12, 1948, RG 59, 893.00/7-1248; Report from US Embassy in China to State Department, Parts I & II, August 10, 1948, RG 59, 893·00/8-1048, NARA II.
38 “Regional origin of Units in the Chinese Nationalist Army,” Intelligence Division, War Department General Staff, September 16, 1947, RG 319, Records of the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Box 2900; “Military Implications in the Possible Disintegration of the Chinese National Government Authority,” dated October 14, 1947, RG 319, Box 2900, NARA II.
39 CIA Research Report, SR-8: China, I-22-24, issued in November 1947, in Central Intelligence Agency, CIA Research Report: China, 1946–1976 (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1982), microfilm, reel 1.
40 See Stuart to State Department, July 12, 1948, RG 59, 893.00/7-1248, NARA II; “Limitations of South China as an Anti-Communist Base,” China Research Report ORE-30-48, dated June 4, 1948, CIA Research Report, reel 1.
41 On Bessac and his secret activities in Inner Mongolia, see Sechin Jagchid, The Last Mongol Prince: The Life and Times of Demchugdongrob, 1902–1966 (Bellingham, WA: Western Washington University, 1999), 373–440.
42 Ma Hongkui, Ma Shaoyun Huiyilu (A Memoir of Ma Hongkui) (Hong Kong: Wenyi shuwu, 1984), 282–87. On postwar American policy toward Inner Mongolia, see Xiaoyuan Liu, Reins of Liberation: An Entangled History of Mongolian Independence, Chinese Territoriality, and Great Power Hegemony, 1911–1950 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006), 283–329.
43 On Mackiernan and his espionage in China’s western frontiers, see Ted Gup, The Book of Honor: Covert Lives and Classified Deaths at the CIA (New York: Anchor Books, 2001), 9–42; Thomas Laird, Into Tibet: The CIA’s First Atomic Spy and his Secret Expedition to Lhasa (New York: Grove Press, 2002).
44 “Travels in Southern and Eastern Sinkiang,” Memoranda Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 10, top secret, written by J. Hall Paxton (US Consul in Urumqi), dated June 27, 1948, RG 59, 893.00 Sinkiang/6-2748, NARA II.
45 Stuart to State Department, October 16, 1948, RG 59, 893.00/10-1648, NARA II.
46 CIA China Research Report ORE 45–48 entitled “The Current Situation in China,” July 22, 1948, CIA Research Report, reel 1.
47 See “Political Rumours: Formosa,” British Consulate in Tamsui to British Embassy in Nanking, July 25, 1947, in Robert L. Jarman, ed., Taiwan Political and Economic Reports 1861–1960, 8 (Slough, UK: Archive Editions Limited, 1997), 294–95; US Consulate General in Shanghai to State Department, December 7, 1947, RG 59, 894A.00/12-747, NARA II.
48 US Consulate General in Taipei to State Department, December 13, 1947, RG 59, 894A.00/12-1347, NARA II.
49 US Consulate General in Taipei to State Department, May 13, 1948, RG 59, 894A.00/5-1348, NARA II.
50 “Memorandum of Conversation with General MacArthur at Tokyo,” dated December 7, 1948, RG 59, 894A.00/1-649, NARA II.
51 “The Political and Economic Appreciation of the Situation in China,” December 10, 1948, Cabinet Office Records (hereafter CAB) 134/285/FE(O)(48)34, BNA. See also Odd Arne Westad, Decisive Encounters: The Chinese Civil War, 1946–1950 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2003), 200–02.
52 Westad, Decisive Encounters, 192–211. On the three great campaigns of the Chinese civil war, see also Liu Tong, Zhongguo di Yi-jiu-si-ba nian — Liangzhong Mingyun di Juezhan (1948 in China: A Decisive Battle Between the Two Fates) (Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing Company, 2006).
53 Chiang noted on November 23, 1948 that, as a result of the worsening situation within and outside China, Madame Chiang was emotionally and psychologically out of control, and both Chiang and his wife were suffering insomnia. See Chiang’s diary entry for November 23, 1948, Box 47, CKSD.
54 Chiang’s diary entry for November 25, 1948, Box 47, CKSD.
55 Robert J. Donovan, Tumultuous Years: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1949–1953 (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1982), 72–73.
56 Chiang’s diary entries for December 16 and 28, 1948, Box 47, CKSD.
57 Chiang’s diary entries for December 22 and 25, 1948, and January 1, 1949, Box 47, CKSD; Lin, Zhanhou Zhongguo de Bianju, 300–03.
58 Te-kong Tong and Li Tsung-jen, The Memoirs of Li Tsung-jen (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1979), 483–86; Nancy Bernkopf Tucker, Patterns in the Dust: Chinese-American Relations and the Recognition Controversy, 1949–1950 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983), 59–61.
59 NSC 34/1: “United States Policy toward China,” January 11, 1949, US Department of State, Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS): 1949, ix (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 1861– ), 474–75.
60 US Embassy in China to George Marshall, October 16, 1948, RG 59, 893.00/10-1648, NARA II; China Research Report ORE-77-48 entitled “Chinese Communist Capabilities for Control of All China,” dated December 10, 1948, CIA Research Report, reel 1.
61 Cabinet minute entitled “The political and economic appreciation of the situation in China,” December 10, 1948, CAB 134/285/FE(O)(48)34, BNA. See also Wu, Song Ziwen Pingzhuan, 521.
62 James Brennan to T. V. Soong, January 4, 11 and 20, 1949, Box 19, TVSP.
63 Kenneth Krentz (US Consul-General in Taipei) to Acheson, January 15, 1949, RG 59, 894A.00/1-1549, NARA II.
64 Krentz to Acheson, January 2, 1949, RG 59, 894A.01/1-249, NARA II; CIA memorandum, dated August 9, 1949, CIA Research Reports, reel 1.
65 Chiang Kai-shek to Madame Chiang, January 17, 1949, President Chiang Kai-shek Collection, Jiang Zongtong Jiashu (Chiang Kai-shek’s family letters), vol. 3, Academia Historica, Taipei (hereafter AH).
66 Madame Chiang to Chiang Ching-kuo, December 28, 1948 and February 6, 1949, President Chiang Kai-shek Collection, Jiang Zongtong Jiashu (Chiang Kai-shek’s family letters), vol. 3, AH.
67 Chiang’s diary entries for January 11, 18 and 22, 1949, Box 47, CKSD.
68 See, for example, K. C. Wu, Ye Lailin: Wu Guozhen Jianzheng di Guo Gong Douzheng (The Night Cometh: A Personal Study of Communist Techniques in China) (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2009), 255–59.
69 See, for example, Elizabeth Converse, “Formosa: Private Citadel?” in Far Eastern Survey, 18:21 (October 1948): 249–50.
70 A careful analysis of the US policy choice debate on Taiwan in early 1949 can be found in David M. Finkelstein, Washington’s Taiwan Dilemma, 1949–1950: From Abandonment to Salvation (Fairfax, VA: George Mason University Press, 1993), 109–32.
71 “Note by the Secretaries to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on the Current Position of the United States with respect to Formosa,” February 3, 1949, RG 218, Geographical File 1948–50, Entry: UD 7, 190: 1, NARA II.
72 For a careful discussion on this issue, see Jonathan Fenby, Chiang Kai-shek: China’s Generalissimo and the Nation He Lost (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2003), 473–98.
73 “Note by the Secretaries to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Supplementary Measures with respect to Formosa,” dated March 3, 1949, RG 218, Geographical File 1948–50, Entry: UD 7, 190: 1, NARA II. For a careful analysis of this subject, see also Robert Accinelli, Crisis and Commitment: United States Policy toward Taiwan, 1950–1955 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), 6–12; McGlothlen, Controlling the Waves, 86–104.
74 The British observed Admiral Oscar Badger, Commander in chief of the US West Pacific Fleet, and Roger Lapham and Allan Griffin from the Economic Cooperation Administration, were also in Taiwan around the time of Merchant’s visit to the island. See “Summary of Events in Formosa during February 1949,” by E. T. Biggs (British Consul in Tamsui), in Jarman, ed., Taiwan Political and Economic Reports 1861–1960, 8: 484–86.
75 Finkelstein, Washington’s Taiwan Dilemma, 134–35.
76 US Consulate General in Taipei to State Department, March 6, 1949, RG 59, 894A.00/3-649, NARA II.
77 Finkelstein, Washington’s Taiwan Dilemma, 136–37.
78 Robert Griffin, deputy chief of ECA in China who advocated drastic means to prevent Taiwan from falling into either Nationalist and Communist hands, was the main figure who went over the situation in Taiwan closely with Merchant on the eve of the latter’s mission to the island. See Griffin to Roger Lapham (Chief of ECA in China), February 25, and March 19, 1949, Box 1, Robert A. Griffin Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University.
79 Shen, Sun Liren Zhuan, 2: 694–96.
80 Acheson to Merchant, March 6, 1949, RG 59, 894A.00/3-649, NARA.
81 Merchant to Acheson, enclosed in US Consulate General in Taipei to State Department, March 9, 1949, RG 59, 893.00/3-949; US Consulate General in Shanghai to State Department, March 11, 1949, RG 59, 893.50 Recovery/3-1149, NARA II.
82 Here Chen Cheng might be playing a double game. On the one hand he informed Kenneth Krentze that, if Washington was interested in Sun Liren becoming governor of Taiwan, this could be accomplished by an appeal from him to Chiang Kai-shek not to block such a transfer. On the other hand, sensing that the Americans did not favor supporting him, Chen was eager to display his loyalty to Chiang. See Stuart to State Department, March 14, 1949, RG 59, 893.01/3-1449; Donald Edgar (US Consul in Taipei) to State Department, March 19, 1949, RG 59, 893.00/3-1949, NARA II.
83 Stuart to State Department, April 10, 1949, RG 59, 893.00/4-1049, NARA II.
84 Stuart to State Department, April 10, 1949, RG 59, 893.00/4-1049, NARA II.
85 State Department Office Memorandum entitled “Implementation of NSC 37/2 regarding United States Policy toward Formosa,” May 12, 1949, RG 59, 894A.00/5-1249, NARA II.
86 Policy Planning Staff draft memorandum entitled “A Possible Course of Action with respect to Formosa and the Pescadores,” June 23, 1949, in FRUS 1949, Vol. IX, 359.
87 Memorandum of Conversation by the Ambassador at Large (Jessup), January 16, 1950, in FRUS 1950, Vol. VI, 280–83.