Susan in NC’s Reviews > Stilwell and the American Experience in China: 1911-1945 > Status Update

“His reputation as an expert was growing. Colonel Lynch, on returning to Washington from the 15th Infantry, reported that Stilwell “knows China and the Far East better, in my opinion, than any other officer in the service.” His explorations through the country “have given him a background that no one else possesses.””

“ Stilwell had been learning what he could about the Communists for some time and evidently sharing his information with fellow attachés. A note from the British Embassy in February 1936 thanked him for “a most interesting brochure on the Chinese Communist situation.””

“ After locating and identifying army units he was able to report, “No evidence of planned defense against further Japanese encroachment. No troop increase or even thought of it. No drilling or maneuvering.””

“…took him back in memory to his first arrival in Peking in 1920—“the cool crisp days of fall with a breeze in the trees…the newness of everything. The kids were little and we had a lot yet in front of us. Not so good now….What made up that feeling? The newness of things?…No worries; promise of strange and interesting things to come…” Stilwell was fifty-three with but ten years to live.”

“He traveled not by the direct rail route but through the interior by bus, car, riverboat, ferry and foot. After a 30-mile hike from one remote country town to the next on the way to Kweilin, an acquaintance wrote, “You are probably the only one in the American Embassy who ever travelled over that part of the country.””

“In so far as military preparedness would supply a clue, it was the military attaché’s function to find the answer. As in the past, Stilwell undertook to see for himself on a series of journeys that ranged from south China to Manchuria. The first one in April 1936…”

“Alarmed at American quiescence, China made anxious inquiries, even suggesting that she might be forced into alliance with Japan. Her hint evoked no reaction…The act that twisted the course of events came from the people of China, or a vocal segment of them in Peiping. The arrogant Japanese presence in north China had brought into being the one thing that could frustrate the Japanese plan—an active nationalism.”

“…society was not Stilwell’s forte; he avoided the Peking Club and was not felt to be “one of us” by its frequenters. But he was agreeable to a Chinese aristocrat like Mme. Dan, a Manchu princess, former lady-in-waiting to the Empress Dowager, and one of the most distinguished and educated women of the old nobility, who was often entertained by the Stilwells. He cultivated other Chinese acquaintances…”

“ Stilwell’s final comment showed him possessed of that unusual talent—the capacity to understand a historical process while it was happening. “Paradoxically,” he wrote, “each successful encroachment will be accepted more and more as inevitable and the foreign powers will be less and less inclined to call a halt.” This was a classic definition of the appeasement era before history gave it a name.”