Treading Softly: U.S. Marines in China, 1819-1949

by George B. Clark

From the mid-19th century to the early Cold War, the United States has a long history with China, and that interaction has not always been positive or productive. This brief history of foreign intervention in China, viewed through the experiences of the United States Marines, examines how the occupying powers dealt with a fellow sovereign nation. In many cases this involved the partition or outright absorption of Chinese territory through naked aggression. Clark contends that, considering the past two centuries, the Chinese have good reason to distrust all foreigners, and he urges the pursuit of a badly needed rapprochement.

This is, however, also the story of the evolution of the Marine Corps as a separate service. Although an occupying force, the Marines did make considerable efforts to earn the friendship of the Chinese people. Always on the brink of extinction due to budgetary cuts and the enmity of the army and navy, the Marines managed to perform an onerous and difficult duty in a foreign land. With a resurgent China constantly testing the United States, a fellow Pacific Rim nation, every policymaker should be well aware of the often difficult history that we share and the mistakes that have been made in the past.

240 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2001

About the author

Clark is a former Marine and respected military historian. He is the proprietor of The Brass Hat, an antiquarian bookstore in New Hampshire specializing in military and Marine Corps history.

Reviews

[Marshall Snyder · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very interesting book on the U.S. Marine Corps in China. While there were periodic landings in the 19th Century in China, a permanent Marine Corps presence in China started in 1900 with the Boxer Rebellion. Clark tells many stories about the “Old Corps” in China - a sought after duty station between the World Wars. The book ends with an account of the Marine Corps occupation on North China after the end of WW II that lasted until May 1949. A future chapter will have to be written about Marine Corps involvement in the inevitable war with China over Taiwan.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

A classic book on the Marines stationed in China before World War 2 and the immediate aftermath. It was short but a great read on a forgotten part of American history.