Thunder Out of China - Primary Source Edition

by Theodore H. White

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Genres: China, History, Nonfiction, World War II, War, Politics, Military Fiction

310 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1946

About the author

Theodore Harold White was an American political journalist, historian, and novelist, best known for his accounts of the 1960, 1964, 1968, and 1972 presidential elections.
White became one of Time magazine's first foreign correspondents, serving in East Asia and later as a European correspondent. He is best known for his accounts of two presidential elections, The Making of the President, 1960 (1961, Pulitzer Prize) and The Making of the President, 1964 (1965), and for associating the short-lived presidency of John F. Kennedy with the legend of Camelot. His intimate style of journalism, centring on the personalities of his subjects, strongly influenced the course of political journalism and campaign coverage.

Reviews

[Checkman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Theodore White was a correspondent with Time magazine in China during WWII. Much of what he wrote was censored by both the Chinese Nationalist government as well as the editors at Time. Due to this interference, he resigned and wrote "Thunder Out of China" with fellow China reporter Annalee Jacoby (later Fadiman) in 1946. Freed from the oversight of government and editors the book details the many problems facing China at the time. There is a strong focus on the corruption and incompetence of the Nationalist government as well as detailing that the communists under Mao were better organized and motivated to actually change China. Though the Chinese Civil War was still on-going when the book was published White makes it very clear that the Communists will probably win and that the West is backing the wrong horse. It all makes for rather engrossing reading - especially when one looks at the world situation in 2023. The book is seventy-six years old at the time of this review being written. China is now a super-power and there are many who except the next world war will be between the U.S. and China. To say this book has become prophetic would be an understatement.

A few years after the book's publication and the Communist victory in China (1949) White found himself caught up in the Macarthy Communist Witch Hunt. There was a discourse in American politics at that time called "the loss of China" and thanks to this book Mr. White found himself solidly in that category. Many considered his book to have been aiding and abetting the "Reds" and undercutting the Nationalist government. Reading it decades later I have to chalk such ideas up to denial. Mr. White simply detailed what was going on in China. The fact that a corrupt and out of touch government would be toppled by an aggressive and capable political movement should have not come as a surprise, but many in my country seem to maintain a stubborn myopia when it comes to such matters.

In 2023 "Thunder Out of China" still feels relevant and fresh in many different ways. It's an interesting read from both a historical as well as a contemporary perspective. It is a solid addition to my personal library.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

The biography of N. Eldon Tanner's (N. Eldon Tanner, his life and service) mentioned that this book was very meaningful to him. Therefore I became interested in it.

I read this book at the same time as The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. They both deal with politics and reading them at the same time I made a lot of connections that I might not have otherwise gotten.

There is a lot of history in here, and although it painted a very different picture than I had ever heard before, it felt credible. As I got into the last chapter or two, it began to feel more like a position paper. Unfortunately, the warning wasn't enough.

Written more than 50 years ago, the blunders described in here are common throughout history, and thus this book is still meaningful. I was impressed with the depth and to a lesser extent the breadth of coverage of China starting within the time of WWII, and continuing until about a year after Japan surrendered. I had hoped to learn how the Communists came to power, but as of the end of the book, it was about an equal match between them and the old government. I looked up what happened, and learned a little about what happened after the end of the book. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_...

I have long wondered how the Chinese went from a millennium of being perhaps the greatest power on the earth to being a backward country. This book didn't directly address that question, but from having read it, I now have an intriguing piece of the puzzle filled in.

It gave enough information that now I have a rudimemtary understanding of why the Communists came into power. The abuse of the people was a continual scene throughout the book. Before reading this, I had little love for Communists and thought that Chiang Kai-shek was a "good guy". Now I have a much better feel for why the people found them attractive. Chiang Kai-shek had one "good" trait in that he was violently anti-Communist. On the other hand as an oppressive dictator who tolerated graft and corruption, he did not alleviate the suffering of the people. "Believing that corruption and a lack of morals were key reasons that the KMT lost mainland China to the Communists, Chiang attempted to purge corruption by dismissing members of the KMT accused of graft." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_K...)


If a person read and understood this book, they would have a good idea what not to do. Doing things right is a lot harder task, but understanding history is a good start.

[Marcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

The fact that this book was written in 1946 before the revolutionary battle between the forces of Mao Tse-Tung and those of Chiang Kai-Chek for control of country makes the reading of this book even more interesting. White correctly analyzed the corruptness of the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-Chek and backed, erroneously, by the US. Many billions of taxpayer dollars later, China is under Communist control, has undergone monumental changes, is a world power, and the US still is insisting that the only "true" Chinese government is headquartered in Taiwan.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent overview of the Chinese Civil War, the tentative peace while nationalists and communists fought Japan, and the little known China-Burma-India theater of war. The two authors were journalists who spent years in China during WW11 and published their thoughts on the future of China in 1946 when American foreign policy in the area was at a crossroads.

Beginning directly with the first paragraph of the introduction, White and Jacoby build their case that the Americans had very little understanding of the conditions in Asia and explain why the end of war would not equal peace in China.

While it is often helpful to read histories written years later with a more distant perspective, I also found the immediacy of the topic very eye opening. One surprising example of which is the authors’ opinion of Mahatma Gandhi. While blaming European colonialism for many of Asia’s ills, the authors are not impressed with Gandhi’s nonviolent approach to resistance. Revered by many now as a modern saint, they felt that an opportunity for freedom for India was missed in 1942 because Gandhi crippled the Indian’s ability to revolt which resulted in prolonged suffering. Of course, it would still be two years before those nonviolent methods procured freedom for India.

The concluding chapters contain a hard look at inept American foreign policy and a prescient insight into China’s possible futures. White and Jacoby outline two trajectories: America could mediate a unity government with freedom, democracy and progress for all citizens as its goal or it could continue to take sides with the corrupt dictatorship under Chiang K’ai-shek leaving Communism as the only hope for the hungry and uneducated masses. Who knows if the predicted peace could have been achieved if we had chosen democracy. Tragically, we do know the results of the path we chose in China and stubbornly and consistently chose over the decades of the Cold War.

In the final pages, White and Jacoby spell out our only hope for lasting freedom and peace: “We ourselves must become the sponsors of revolution.” They equally clearly predict the outcome that we have seen history unfold: “To try to frustrate or delay the birth of this new world is not only wicked but perilous; it might well result some day in the melancholy verdict that ours was an age in which men died that peace might come- and no peace came, or came too late.”

[Devyn · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm calling it quits on this one.

Never thought I'd meet a book on WW2 that could put me to sleep, but Thunder Out of China is the exemplification of yawn.

While boring it may be, I will freely admit that this is a gold mine of information on 1930/40s China's rollercoastering politics. A conscientious and meticulous look at the chaotic transition from the Kuomintang government to communism during the Japanese invasion. Which is why I didn't like it because I prefer military strategy and theory instead of the never ending squabble of people in power.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thunder Out of China provides a look at China as it transitioned from the Kuomintang government to communism following World War II. The book takes the reader through Theodore White's perspective (who was a journalist stationed in China at the time) on why the Kuomintang fell and the corruption that led to their fall. It is very detailed and provides a unique perspective of China that few are able to provide at that time. He looks at the peasants, the military the political leadership of both the Kuomintang and the Communists as well as the efforts of the United States State Department and Military who helped to preserve the leadership of the Kuomintang. It is a very quick read for those who want a perspective on what occurred form someone who lived it at the time. While not all encompassing it does provide a primary source for the fall of China.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I kept reading things that I thought I remembered reading before and there on page 143, I found a note I had written myself on the first reading many years ago. Very well written ,and interesting to read what the author thought would happen in China the few decades after he wrote in 1946. He was about 50% on. Now I want to read some of his THE MAKING OF THE PRESIDENT books. I have all of them but have yet to read even one.

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely well written history of China during and just after WWII, an area I had little knowledge of before. Mr. White was a journalist stationed in China during the events he covers. Indeed,some chapters are told in first-person narrative. As the book was copyright 1946, the last two chapters are especially disheartening as Mr. White discusses the future of China and how America could help the Communist and Kuomintang unite to transition to a modern nation. Alas, his advice was not heeded.

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book, and not really what I had expected. I was expecting a book covering WW2 in China, what I got was really more of a narrative on the political situation in China before, during, and after WW2. This wasn't a bad thing actually. Written by two Time-Life correspondents stationed in China during the war, it brings China's wartime politics to life. As you might imagine, a book written by old time newspapermen, is very well written. Overall it was very descriptive, and at times poetic. Noting groundbreaking as far as wartime politics go. Having read Tuchman's book on Stillwell, and Red Star Over China I had a pretty good idea of what was going on there. What interested me were the pre, and post WW2 coverage. While the books timeline ends prior to the defeat of the Kuomintang the post WW2 portion has some interesting insights. There is a chapter at the end looking toward the future of China, and though many suppositions were incorrect, I think the writers predictions were pretty interesting overall. The book stands up well for its age (1948) and is well worth a read for anyone interested, not only in WW2, but post WW2 China.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even now, 74 years after this book's publication, it makes so clear the political factions and their bases in the first half of the 2oth century. It occurs to me that Revolutions and/or Civil Wars occur usually because there is an oppressed lower class that finally can tolerate its condition no longer--and there is such a hatred of the classes that do the oppressing, in China, in particular, it led to the atrocities of the Cultural Revolution. Atrocious if you are of a cultured, educated class. Understandable if you are a poor peasant with no opportunities to pursue. T.H.White and his coauthor Annalee Jacoby write clearly and directly about very complex issues. They don't make them simple, but the do make them understandable.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps it's the constant upheaval in China between 1937-1945 or just superb writing, but this book never dragged. It gives healthy insight into where China has clawed itself up from in just the past 60 years. The events of this book are the framework for where America, China, and Russia are today. It's sad, gruesome, and disheartening at times, as much of human history is. However, this is the kind of knowledge so many, especially those now dictating foreign policy, are lacking. Excellent read.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is complicated some mid-20th century racial and social attitudes that don’t fully respect China. However, while this is sometime troubling, the book is still a remarkable work of reportage on China during WWII. It offers prescient observations about the future of China and Asia and, while somewhat problematic, is still far more willing to center the narrative around an understanding of Chineseness rather than making sweeping colonial assumptions about the country.
Recommended to anyone interested in this historical period.

[Cojaysea · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent. I found out about this book from reading another masterpiece by David Halberstam, “ the Powers that be “ . ( is there a book by that man that’s not a masterpiece?) . Here is a book written by people who were there and saw with their own eyes how our government backed the wrong man and why we assured the communists take over of China . Isn’t it incredible how the American government always seems to back the wrong side in international affairs ? the contras ? South Vietnam ? Chang Kai- Shek was the most pompous brutal thick headed dictator who had not the slightest intention of making China free . The book is filled with stark facts and prescient writing .
Written 2 years before the communists took power .

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

Midwit journalists should not try to write history.

[David Frazier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful insights into both the CCP and KMT written in the era of their formation, insights that are still valuable today.

[Dave N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worthwhile if only to understand in what context the American public was introduced to the post-war conflict in China and their country's role there. White's analysis of the conflict is very harsh towards Nationalist forces, and rightfully so, but it is more forgiving of the Communists than history has been in retrospect. The chapter on the famine in Henan in 1942-43 is particularly interesting as its a first-hand account of the deplorable conditions brought on by the Nationalists, including accounts of cannibalism. That said, the final chapter, detailing White's beliefs on how America's handling of the conflict would have repercussions that lasted long after the then current fighting was over is perhaps this books greatest legacy.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

eye opening account of how china became communist state, I will never look at China/Taiwan/US the same. i learned so much about China's culture and people in this book.

[Nathan Sorseth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant. A classic, prophetic in its vision and unfortunately ignored by US policy-makers of the late 40s and 50s.