SHOWDOWN IN CHINA
Fischer, Louis
Showdown In China By LOUIS FISCHER THE appointment of Gen. George C. Marshall as United States Ambassador to China reveals the paramount significance which the United States Government attaches to...
...Marshall will go out to China to draw the line and then come home and leave the job to another man...
...A very intimate relationship between Chiang Kai-shek and the United States will compromise him in the eyes of the Chinese people unless he can convince them of two things: one, that the nation will benefit economically, and, two, that China will not become subservient to America...
...has wisely chosen to spend much, time in Washington and New York...
...The investigation, now underway, promises to be rich in revelations...
...HURLEY could have gone back to China as American ambassador...
...America's economic and diplomatic policies," he advises, "should be coordinated...
...Patrick J. Hurley from the United States ambassadorship in China has acted like a bombshell dropped into American politics...
...Marshall is a great strategist and his published wartime reports show that he combines modesty with firmness, caution with imagination, and technical mastery with political intelligence...
...From the American point of view, this is the better way of strengthening the hand of the Chinese national government in Manchuria...
...Today, there is a growing feeling that unless the United States begins to behave more vigorously this country's only compensation for fighting the war will be the psychological satisfaction of having defeated the Axis powers...
...Truman expects Chungking to be pleased and pliant...
...Russia already has a hold on Manchurian railroads and ports and will welcome further concessions from Chiang...
...I am opposed to both" British and Russian imperialism, Hurley asserts...
...The other day, President Trumfi told his press conference in the White House that he was not in favor of personal meetings with the chiefs of state of Great Britain and Russia and "never had been...
...In T. V. Soong, Chiang has an official who is highly respected by Americans in key places...
...Hurley's blast has been widely interpreted as an attack on the Chinese Communists and a move to strengthen Chiang Kai-shek...
...The United States has no vital economic interests in Europe, and in that area American diplomacy is inclined to support British political initiative...
...His resignation has aroused a nation-wide echo...
...He is one of the five most important men in American public life...
...The United States may be on the verge of a colossal imperialist career which will exacerbate relations with Russia and Britain...
...The Chinese and the Russians are good bargainers...
...Marshall was Chief of Staff throughout the second World War...
...The only chance of peace is for the United States to show, by deeds, that it is not imperialistic...
...Chiang is shrewdly trying to buy off Russia from supporting the Chinese Communists...
...Truman prefers to deal with each foreign government directly or through the United Nations Organization, but Big Three conferences are out, at least for the time being...
...Above all, the United States seeks to protect the territorial integrity of China and to develop China's economic potentials...
...He has tremendous prestige in the United States and abroad...
...President Truman undoubtedly had this in mind when he appointed Marshall to Chungking...
...America's strength should not be allied . with any predatory ideology...
...Hurley wants no American coalition with Britain against Russia...
...Marshall will learn a few lessons in bargaining before his time in China is up...
...But in Asia, and especially now in China, JEruman is likely to follow an independent line...
...It will decide the fate of Asia...
...The State Department wanted him to go back...
...I believe it will be Marshall's mission to induce Chiang to make peace with the Chinese Communists, and to persuade the Chinese Communists to give up their armies and government and make peace with Chiang...
...In effect, Hurley has said the war is over...
...But Hurley apparently believes that in its relations with England the United States is giving more than it is getting...
...But in the long run neither objective can be attained under reactionary Chinese leadership...
...That was a Roosevelt policy of doubtful efficacy and it had now been dropped...
...Hurley wants a political showdown with both Russia and England...
...He resigned, he has publicly declared, because some American career diplomats sympathized with the Chinese Communists and obstructed his efforts to unify China...
...America must take new soundings and chart a new foreign political course...
...Chiang should be ready to listen to a man of the fame and ability of Gen...
...Now Hurley insists on a purge to clean out the pro-Communists...
...Despite Chiang's reactionary and anti-Communist leanings, Stalin has championed him in the past...
...Many changes are possible...
...The collaboration between America and Britain remains very close...
...THE Big Three coalition that won the second World War is no longer functioning...
...Hurley's statement is just as anti-British...
...Then it will be morally justified in asking the British to give up what Hurley has called "colonial imperialism" and the Russians to give up what he styles "communist imperialism...
...Moreover, he charged, "We are permitting ourselves to be sucked into a power bloc on the side of colonial imperialism against Communist imperialism...
...See Page 3) The Truman Administration is now on the eve of a period of plain speaking and more vigorous action in international affairs...
...does in China may determine the shape of international politics for years to come...
...In the past, Chiang has disagreed with American officials in China...
...The anti-Russian angle has been over-emphasized...
...Chiang Kai-shek is a military man facing a political task...
...This is difficult and perhaps impossible...
...It will determine tlje shape of the peace...
...The act was a temperamental outburst by a person who played a big part in wartime diplomacy and who is not devoid of personal ambitions in American domestic affairs...
...The sudden resignation of Mai...
...Marshall can evolve an anti-imperialist policy for America in Asia...
...The trouble is that if one or two big powers are imperialistic all three will be imperialistic and then the suicidal race will be on in earnest...
...Truman is not Roosevelt...
...During the war, the American tendency was to make concessions to allies...
...What America...
...So is Marshall...
...George C. Marshall as United States Ambassador to China reveals the paramount significance which the United States Government attaches to the f uture^of China and to America's part in that future...
...THE real question is whether Gen...
...Chiang wants economic, financial, and military assistance from the United States...
...The immediate reaction to Hurley's resignation has been a general demand for an investigation of the State Department's personnel and a review of American foreign policy...
...The radicals of the United States have for years urged a purge of the State Department to clean out the reactionaries...
...America has been excluded economically from every part of the world controlled by colonial imperialism and Communist imperialism," Hurley complains...
...If necessary, the United States will give Chiang Kai-shek the means of suppressing the Chinese Communist armies...
...T.V...
Vol. 9 • December 1945 • No. 50
