(I) U.S. Army Observation Group in Yan’an
In 1944, the U.S. gained absolute air and sea superiority after the Battle of the Philippines, and warfare against The Japanese homeland began to be on the agenda. In order to reduce casualties in future operations against Japan, the U.S. Army considered landing on the Shandong Peninsula first in order to use airfields in northern China to bombard the Japanese mainland, and therefore intended to enter the so-called Jinchaji “Liberation Zone” controlled by the Chinese Communists to collect military and meteorological information. At the same Time, Stilwell also wanted to assess on the ground the results and strength of the Communist forces in order to provide a basis for his proposed strategy of uniting the Communist forces against the Japanese. Therefore, Stilwell proposed to the National Government to send a U.S. military observation team (Dixie Mission) to Yan’an.
If the Communists had been sincere in their resistance to Japan, Stilwell’s proposal would have made some sense. But in reality, except for the ambush of a small Japanese supply unit at Pingxingguan (1937) and the Battle of the Hundred Regiments (1940), the Communists had no decent record against the Japanese. They basically avoided fighting against the Japanese, swam instead of attacking, and only expanded their territory in terms of men and horses, not hesitating to surround and annihilate the anti-Japanese national army (such as the New Fourth Army’s Battle of Huangqiao in northern Jiangsu in 1940), and even collaborated with the Japanese army to conspire against the national government and build up strength for taking over China later.
Chiang naturally would not allow the United States to be used to provide help to the Chinese Communist Party in a diluted manner. He repeatedly asked Roosevelt to replace the pro-Communist Stilwell, but was prevented from doing so by Stilwell’s boss, Army Chief of Staff Marshall. In July 1944, the U.S. team arrived in Yan’an.
The U.S. Army Observation Group was a gift to the Chinese Communist Party, and was played by it from the beginning to the end, misleading both the Communists and the U.S., and was a preview of the U.S. failure to mediate the Communist conflict after the war.
The U.S. military observation team was the first official contact between the U.S. government and the CCP stronghold, objectively enhancing the CCP’s political status and legitimacy. Originally a terrorist organization supported by the Soviet Communist Party to rebel against the state, the CCP was almost annihilated by the Nationalist government and was only forgiven by the government because of its commitment to resist Japan. However, the Communist Party took advantage of the opportunity to expand and arbitrarily create so-called liberated areas, which were in fact “Soviet republics” in disguise. The United States, as an ally of the legitimate government, took the initiative to show its goodwill to the CCP’s illegal regime, which was tantamount to endorsing the CCP’s terrorist organization. With the support of the U.S., the Communist Party of China (CPC) made itself even more of a legitimate political power and tried to win the sympathy and support of the U.S. so that it could at least remain neutral between the Communist Party of China and the Nationalist Government and create conditions for a post-war showdown with the Nationalist Government. Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai even dreamed of going to the United States to meet with Roosevelt to discuss the future of China. It is worth mentioning that the United States ignorantly took the initiative to give a helping hand when the Communists were weak, shame on the allies of the Republic of China, making the foolishness of the relatives and the haters, which happened many times later. This is an afterthought.
While receiving all the political dividends from the U.S. military observation teams, the CCP was also eager to receive the benefits of U.S. military assistance. The Communists, who were living in northern Shaanxi and other areas, nominally submitted to the military but actually disobeyed military orders several times, evading Japanese troops and attacking friendly forces. As punishment, the National Government stopped paying their military salaries after the 1941 South Anhui Incident and imposed a tight economic blockade on the Communist areas in Yan’an. And after the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, Stalin needed China to stall Japan in order to avoid the enemy at his back. He knew that the Communist Party had neither the will nor the ability to truly resist Japan, and with the Soviet Union’s diplomatic recognition of the Nationalist government, aid to the Communist Party was reduced. To avoid suspicion, Stalin even dissolved the Communist International.
Just when the CCP was getting out of trouble by growing and selling opium and drugs, the Americans came. The Communist Party took the opportunity to lobby the U.S. Army Observer Group for an equal share of U.S. military aid with the Nationalist government. Davis and others did intend to do the same. [3] They had gone behind Chiang’s back and promised to equip 20,000 Communist troops. This plan fell through due to Chiang’s protests and Ambassador Hurley’s intervention.
Although the CCP did not receive U.S. aid, it won a public relations victory. Under the deliberate arrangement of the CCP, the beautiful words, bleaching and misjudgment of the CCP by Xie Weisi and other so-called Chinese communists were instead corroborated and made more authoritative by the Yan’an trip, so much so that the U.S. post-war policy toward China was still misled by their views. This is the greatest danger of the U.S. Army Observer Group.
The leader of the U.S. Army Observation Group, Colonel Byrd, and its members, Davis and Xie Weisi, are all so-called “China Specialists“. The former has served in China for many years and speaks fluent Chinese. The latter two were both born and raised in China. However, they were there to deal with the Chinese Communist Party, and being “China-literate” is not the same as being “China-communist”. They basically don’t know anything about the CCP! There are two main reasons for this.
First of all, the CCP is different from the Chinese people in general. Although they have Chinese faces, they do not share the traditional Chinese Culture and ethics. Since ancient times, the Chinese have revered loyalty, filial piety, benevolence, respect for teachers, gentleness, modesty, kindness, and so on. As Mao Zedong said in Hunan when he was wreaking havoc on the countryside, the revolution is not a dinner invitation, it cannot be so elegant, so calm, so refined, so gentle and so frugal. Wherever the Communists went, they coerced the peasants to rebel against the gentry, making a pandemonium and a thousand miles of bare ground. The Chinese are originally a people who believe in God, and the three religions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism have been in existence for a long time. The Communist Party is not only atheist, but also an enemy of God, using Communist perversions as a guideline to subvert traditional right and wrong, good and evil. The Communists are named Chinese but openly claim allegiance to the Soviet Union, and are essentially agents of the Soviet Communist Party in China, even going to meet Marx after death. Their whole purpose is to destroy Chinese civilization and replace it with an anti-human communist value system and social model like that of the Soviet Union. Chinese communists cannot be considered Chinese at all, much less worthy of being Chinese.
The so-called “Chinese communists” in the U.S. Army Observer Group usually come into contact with normal Chinese people in the National Unification Area, and Colonel Byrd is said to be a long-time student of the Chinese classics (he taught Chinese at an American university after retiring from the Army). But this did not help his understanding of the Chinese Communist Party. He mistakenly projected his love of Chinese culture onto the CCP bandits and was quite unimpressed with the state government calling the Communists bandits. Treating CCP members as normal Chinese people is a common problem of so-called “Chinese people”.
Second, the CCP is not a normal human being. They do not recognize universal moral standards and can ignore any rules and break all boundaries to achieve their goals. The communist bandits’ beastly acts, which violate the laws of God and human nature, are often beyond the imagination of good people. For example, after the Japanese surrender, refugees fleeing the “liberated areas” in northern Jiangsu told of the Communists’ bloody land reform, which even the people of Nanjing, a river away, did not take seriously, thinking that the Communists could not be that bad. [4] And the evil of human nature that Americans from Christian civilization had been exposed to was even more different from the evil that the Communists were good at. The miserable scenes of communist wives, the destruction of human decency, and the indiscriminate fighting and killing in the Soviet Union and the Communist areas were too far away from the American experience. Even if they heard about it, they will not easily believe it.
Besides, Xie Weisi’s stream had been captured by Zhou Enlai’s smiling diplomacy and rhetoric in Chongqing, and it was difficult to link the apparently polite and courteous senior Communist officials with the communist demons. After arriving in the bandit areas of Yan’an, the American observation team was still accustomed to acting in accordance with the code of conduct of a civilized society, focusing on truthfulness, trustworthiness, frankness, honor, etc. Naturally, they also expected the CCP to treat each other with sincerity and tell the truth; after all, they also paid lip service to democracy and swore to resist Japan. But when a gentleman interacts with a rogue, it is often the gentleman who suffers, because the rogue does not bother to follow the rules of civilization. In particular, the Chinese Communist Party, a black-hearted rogue, is very good at disguising itself as a modest gentleman, while Americans are not at all wary of the Chinese Communist bandits who are evil-minded, double-minded, and talk to people and talk to ghosts. They are in the Communist area, and what they see and hear is what the Communists want them to see and hear. Therefore, even though they are close to the Communists, they still seem to be seeing things in a fog, unable to recognize the essence of the Communists and make correct judgments. Underestimating the evil of the communists and believing their lies were another common problem of Americans in their dealings with the communists.
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