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Christian Teran

Dr. Shi Yinhong

The Beijing Center for Chinese Studies

The China-U.S. Relations: Dynamic History and Complex Realities

May 6, 2015

Marshalls Mission to China: Why and with what consequences?

Before I get into detail on what occurred during the time of Army General George C.

Marshalls time in China, I will give a thorough introduction on the background of the time

period, significant current events occurring at the time, the parties involved in this ordeal as well

as the strategic positioning of each party involved. This essay will analyze and evaluate the

events that occurred during George C. Marshalls stay in China and discuss the results of his

efforts in executing his mission that is commonly known as the Marshal Mission. All in all we

will deliberate whether his mission was a success or a failure and why? Along with conversing

on the long-term effects of the mission if there were any to begin with.

The Marshall Mission, what exactly was the main objective of this assignment in the first

place? Well to start off the Marshall Mission which lasted through December 20, 1945 through

January of 1947 was a diplomatic mission that was meant to be executed by Army General

George C. Marshall to China with a specific objective to negotiate a peace treaty or

governmental pact between the Communist Party of China that was at the time being led by Mao

Zedong and the Nationalist, whose leader at the time was Chiang Kai-Shek, and also known as

the Kuomintang or KMT, into one single unified government . The ultimate objective of the
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United States of America was simple and it was to have a strong and powerful ally against the

powerful and rising Communist country known as the Soviet Union; an ally which consisted of

Mao Zedongs Communist Party of China and Chiang Kai-Sheks Kuomintang being one unified

non-communist government organization. One of the United States greatest concern at the time

was that of wanting to halt and prevent any further the spread of influence of Communism

throughout the continent of Asia.

Now that we know what the Marshall mission was all about we can talk about who the

players involved or parties involved in this mission were. First of all we had Army General

George C. Marshall who at this time was acting as the presidential envoy for Harry S. Truman at

the time of the Truman Administration. We then had the two Chinese based groups who were at

constant conflict with one another, The Communist Party of China also known as the CPC and

the Kuomintang or KMT though better known as the Chinese Nationalist.

The Communist Party of China or CPC was founded on July 1, 1921 chiefly by Chen

Duxiu and Li Dazhao. The morals and ideologies behind the Chinese Communist Party are

strongly based off of the philosophies of Marxism and Leninism. According to a statement

provided by the Communist Party of China at the time that MarxismLeninism reveals the

universal laws governing the development of history of human society. As one can note, the the

Communist Party of China was very much in touch with its philosophical roots. During this time

period the Communist Party of China was being led by the one and only Mao Zedong.

Now as for the Nationalist or Kuomintang or KMT, the ideologies were set forth by the

exemplary man named Sun Yat-Sen. The main dilemma that the Kuomintang had at the time

with the Communist Party of China was that, the Kuomintang being Nationalist, felt that China

as a country was being made a mockery of by other countries around the globe, specifically
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developed countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America and most

importantly the Soviet Union. The problem against the Communist Party of China came about

for the simple reason that Communism derived from the Communist Soviet Union. And because

Communism came from the Soviet Union, the Kuomintang was eager to get rid of any trace of

Communism. The Kuomintang strongly believed that the Soviet Union was directly interfering

in Chinese affairs through the expansion and influence of Communism throughout China at the

time The Kuomintang at the time was led by Chiang Kai-Shek.

Last of all we had Army General George C. Marshall acting as the presidential envoy for

Harry S. Truman. One important question that needs to be answered before we go on is why, out

of all people was the Army General George C. Marshall appointed to execute this mission? First

of all, General Marshall was President Truman's principle adviser on a vast amount foreign

policy matters. Another reason was that world leaders and leaders within the states took the time

out of their day and listened to George C. Marshall because of his blunt honesty, unmatched

fairness and his trustworthiness. Aside from being a great individual, George C. Marshall had a

major influence during World War II. He was a successful military man, which resulted in him

receiving the honor and privilege of serving the United States Army as the Five Star General of

the Army, which in turn allowed him to sit in Key War Councils with Franklin D. Roosevelt as

well as Churchill. The following are only a few important Key War Councils George C. Marshall

Part took in:

Casablanca Conference w/ Churchill & FDR in Morocco

Tehran Conference w/FDR, Churchill and Stalin in Iran

Yalta Conference w/FDR, Churchill and Stalin in the USSR

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Potsdam Conference w/Truman, Atlee and Stalin in Germany

Another important thing to know about George C. Marshall is the he actually did serve as a

United States Diplomat during his time in China. Marshall had literally retired for no more than a

week when he was then called up to serve as a diplomat for President Truman. The reason being

that Japans defeat in 1945 created a power vacuum in China. What was once a civil war seemed

more like a revolution involving the Nationalist government of Chiang Kai-Shek and the

Communist forces of Mao Zedong. Marshall was immediately sent to China with the rank of a

U.S Ambassador to try and mediate the conflict.

Now that we have addressed all parties and individuals involved in the Marshall Mission we

can begin to talk about the historical context or background of the situation between the players

involved before the Marshall Mission was ordered by Harry S. Truman. During the end of the

Second World War, August 15th 1945, was also representative of the end of the Second Sino-

Japanese War which involved Japan invading China during a time in which China was still

trying to figure itself out, and throughout the length of these wars between the Japanese and the

Chinese, there was a tense stalemate between the Communist Party of China and the

Kuomintang. Although before the Second Sino-Japanese War had begun, both the Communist

Party of China and the Nationalist were in constant open conflict with one another in a fight for

power. One more interesting fact is that during the Second Sino-Japanese war both the KMT and

CPC briefly joined arms to form the Second United Front in order to fight off the Japanese.

Although during the Hurley Mission which was ordered throughout WWII, which had also

failed, both parties, the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China, accused each other of

treason. In other words, withholding arms against the Japanese in order to save resources and

troops for a civil war that both the KMT and CPC knew was going to keep on going after the
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Second Sino-Japanese war. So as a last resort the Marshall Mission was ordered by Harry S.

Truman and executed by Army General George C. Marshall. Although both missions had the

goal of unifying both parties, the KMT and CPC, both had failed.

Although even before all of this, I think it is important to know the history of the relationship

between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China. It all began with e 1911 Xinhai

Revolution where the country of China was divided in the multiple segments with different

influences affecting them. The government at the time was not strong enough or effective

enough to maintain order throughout mainland China and through bad-decision making on the

governments part, they simply kept losing more and more power. Though in the 1912

parliamentary elections the KMT won, though the only downfall was that instead of acting as a

government, the KMT began expressing themselves as a dictatorship under the control of Yuan

Shikai who would later go on to declare himself the new emperor of China. Though Yuan Shikai

passed away in 1916, which is when the Warlord Era began to arise and makes its way into

history.

The Warlord Era is what it sounds like it is, it was a time period throughout China in which

warlords were in search for political power throughout the country, with the Kuomintang being

the strongest faction at the time. During this era the Long March took place from 1934 to 1935

where the Communist Party of China was left a weakened party with roughly around 7,000

troops. Although as we now know the CPC ended up being victorious in the end. Three

fundamental aspects that led to the Communist Party of Chinas victory were the Second Sino-

Japanese War, the Soviet Union lending a helping hand and the corruption within the

Kuomintang itself.
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During the Second Sino-Japanese war the Japanese took over most of the eastern coast along

with all of Manchuria during their invasion of China. This obviously helped the CPC for the

reason that the Chinese Civil War came to a halt for a brief moment. When this happened the

KMT and CPC had to join forces in order to fend off the Japanese. And the main reason as too

why this helped the CPC was that it gave them time to recover and they were able to do more

damage and win more battles over the Japanese army due to their preferred style of fighting,

guerilla warfare. A trait that helped in many ways because while the KMT was struggling with e

Japanese and losing battles and morale, they were also losing supporters while on the other hand

you had the CPC gaining victory after victory which made the CPC look heroic, gaining them

more supporters during the war against Japan.

Now as for the Soviet Union helping out the Communist Party of China gain the advantage

over the Kuomintang there is one major factor that helped tremendously. As a result of the

Operation August Storm where the Soviet Army took over Manchuria, which was occupied by

the Japanese during WWII. When Japan announced its surrender in 1945 the Soviet Union had

what was a very valuable piece of land that belonged to China, and when the Soviet Union gave

the land back, they obviously handed it over to the Communist Party of China for the obvious

reason that the CPC was affiliated with the Communist philosophy. So during Japans surrender

the CPC was given a more industrialized part of China which was Manchuria in the North, the

KMT was handed over territory by the Japanese which made it extremely impossible to make a

smooth transition. On top of all of this the KMT itself was a corrupt organization, which led it to,

metaphorically speaking rot from the inside out. So all in all, at the start of the Marshall Mission

in 1945, the CPC had control over an industrialized part of China, had plenty of support from the
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people and the Soviet Union as well and the KMT was left with essentially nothing valuable, or

anything that would help increase their chances at gaining political power in China.

Now what exactly happened during the Marshall Mission? Well Marshall arrives in China

on December 20th, 1945 and as it was previously stated, his ultimate goal was to unify both the

CPC and KMT in order to construct a powerful and non-communist China in order to attain the

ultimate objective of having a powerful ally against the Soviet Union. Marshall immediately

started negotiations between the two parties although no agreement would ever come of the two.

On the contrary both parties used this time to prepare for inevitable conflict between themselves.

One very important aspect to know is that Marshall had no leverage over the Communists Party

of China, and the only leverage Marshall had against the Kuomintang was that he threatened to

withdraw American aid that at the time was essential if they wanted to gain control of China, to

the Nationalists. In the end President Truman still tried himself in creating some sort of alliance

with the Communist Party of China but Mao Zedong was unwilling to do so and for obvious

reasons.

Are there some explanations for why the Marshall Mission was a complete failure? Of course

there are, as Republican senator Joe McCarthy states, he believed that because of the actions that

Marshall took in China during his time there gave the advantage and helped the Communist

Party of China by giving them that advantage over the Kuomintang. One might ask how did

George C. Marshall do this, well for starters one thing that Marshall did was that he embargoed

all arms and ammunition to American allies in China which ultimately led to few resources for

the Kuomintang. Though Marshall argued that propping up the Kuomintang in a position of

advantage over the Communist Party of China would drain United States resources in Europe

needed to discourage the Soviets. Marshall also opened the Nationalist-held Kalgan Mountain
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pass into Manchuria which resulted in the CPC getting a hold of captured Japanese equipment.

Later Chiang Kai-Shek and some other historians started to say that because of Marshalls order

of a cease-fire between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China that the Communist

Party of China was saved from defeat. To me personally this seems highly unlikely, especially

with everything that occurred in China before the Marshall Mission.

Further prevention of the war involved preventing future conflict between the CPC and the

KMT. On June 27th 1950: soon after the outbreak of fighting in Korea, President Truman sent the

U.Ss Navys 7th Fleet into the Taiwan Strait in order to prevent further conflict between the CPC

in the Mainland and the newly found Republic of China in Taiwan. The overall results of the

Marshall Mission to China go as followed, Army General George C. Marshall left China in

February of 1947. The end of the Marshall Mission marked the start of the Chinese Civil War

was again. The Chinese Civil War ended in 1949 with the CPC being victorious and the KMT

being pushed down south into Taiwan and out of Mainland China. The Peoples Republic of

China was then formed. And most importantly to the United States was the loss of what could

have been a powerful ally in the ongoing tensions between the U.S and the Soviet Union.

In the end, one can assume that the Marshall Mission was going to be a failure since the

beginning, this is simply for the reason that at the end of the Second World War which marked

the beginning of the Second-Sino Japanese War, the Communist Party of China was already at a

great advantage over the Kuomintang. The CPC had control over the industrialized north of

China due to the Soviet Union handing over Manchuria to them, while the KMT had the ruins of

the south given to them by the Japanese. And to top it all off the Soviet Union was a supporter of

the CPC throughout the entire conflict while the KMT had little support from the United States

in the beginning of 1945 through 1949 but eventually ended up with no support from anyone.
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