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Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45 Paperback – October 7, 2001

by Barbara W. Tuchman (Author)

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Barbara W. Tuchman won the Pulitzer Prize for Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45 in 1972. She uses the life of Joseph Stilwell, the military attache to China in 1935-39 and commander of United States forces and allied chief of staff to Chiang Kai-shek in 1942-44, to explore the history of China from the revolution of 1911 to the turmoil of World War II, when China's Nationalist government faced attack from Japanese invaders and Communist insurgents. Her story is an account of both American relations with China and the experiences of one of our men on the ground. In the cantankerous but level-headed "Vinegar Joe," Tuchman found a subject who allowed her to perform, in the words of The National Review, "one of the historian's most envied magic acts: conjoining a fine biography of a man with a fascinating epic story."

Print length

624 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Grove Press
Publication date

October 7, 2001
Dimensions

6 x 1.25 x 9 inches
ISBN-10

0802138527
ISBN-13

978-0802138521
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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Grove Press; 1st Grove Press ed edition (October 7, 2001)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 624 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802138527
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802138521
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.84 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.25 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,925,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #2,851 in Asian Politics
- #3,558 in Chinese History (Books)
- #8,869 in Political Leader Biographies

Customer Reviews:
4.6 595 ratings

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Barbara Wertheim Tuchman

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Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (/ˈtʌkmən/; January 30, 1912 – February 6, 1989) was an American historian and author. She won the Pulitzer Prize twice, for The Guns of August (1962), a best-selling history of the prelude to and the first month of World War I, and Stilwell and the American Experience in China (1971), a biography of General Joseph Stilwell.

Tuchman focused on writing popular history.

Bio from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

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Michael T. McCaffrey

Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945

Reviewed in the United States on November 8, 2013

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Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-45

This is one of those books I just could not put down. Ms. Tuchman brilliantly incorporates a broad swath of China's history: from post Boxer Rebellion/end of the Manchus through the defeat of Japan and the final days of the Nationalists under Chiang on the Mainland. She covers the Nationalists initially flexing their muscles under Sun Yat Sen (recalling the movie: THE SAND PEBBLES here, marking the days of "gunboat diplomacy" prior to the onset of WWI when the International Powers vacated their numerous interests in China to go fight in Europe), to Japan's initial forays into China, attempting to fill the vacuum left when the Europeans departed. From there we see, all the while filtered through the experiences of General Stilwell, Japan making their all-out bid to take over China via full scale invasion. In addition to sending massive forces into China, Japan then went on to attack the United States forces in Hawaii, bringing the U.S. fully into the conflagration that was WWII. The moving narrative incorporates such historical giants of the period in the CBI (China-Burma-India Theater) as: FDR, General Marshall, Gen. Chennault, Mountbatten-Percival-Waverly on the British side, and the leaders of the Free World who were so instrumental in this massive global endeavor: FDR (again), Churchill, Stalin, and ... Stilwell's "Peanut" ... Chiang Kai Shek.

As an aside: As a very young Air Force pup stationed in Taiwan when Chiang was still alive and the Nationalists were in full control (still are), a bunch of us young airmen had a picnic on a beach in Tainan (south Taiwan). We started a fire to cook some "dogs," and were having a wonderful time. All of a sudden, two large Nationalist Army trucks screeched to a halt right near us and disgorged the numerous troops within. They ran up and encircled us ... rifles with LARGE bayonets aimed right at us. We stood and raised our hands, not knowing what the heck was going on. We attempted communicating with the young Nationalist soldiers, but they obviously did not speak English ... and none of us spoke Mandarin. We just stood that way for probably three LONG minutes, hands in the air, not knowing if they would shoot us, or use us for bayonet practice. Then a Nationalist staff car roared up and an officer emerged. He did, thank God, speak English. He asked us who we were and what the heck we were doing with a fire on the beach. We explained our innocent efforts. He had his troops immediately kill the fire and explained that such fires were interpreted as signals to the Communist forces on the Mainland and were illegal. They departed, and I think we all aged some years on that day.

After surviving the above, I went on to have a very interesting Air Force assignment in Japan. I returned to Japan again in the Foreign Service, and also had additional FS assignments in Malaysia and Beijing, China. Asia has been a burning interest in me since grade school, and the Tuchman book substantiated what I thought I knew, and filled in some gaps in what I didn't know. For those interested in WWII/Japan/China/Military History, as well as those who want to understand what happened back then and why todays China/Japan/Asia might use those experiences as a prism with which to view the world today, I would certainly recommend this great book.

6 people found this helpful

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Michael Green

Complex and Comprehensive

Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2022

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The book follows Joseph Stilwell during his troubled command in the CBI theater during WWII, but starts with brief biographical stages to get him into China, which he knew very well. The book distills a considerable amount of research into the narrative (sometimes wearying the reader), but the machinations of Chiang and the Chinese probably wearied Stilwell and the American command more. Chiang looked to sap the Americans of aid and materiel, to outlast the Japanese without engaging them, and to stay in power against the powerful Chinese Communists under Mao. Stilwell wanted to reform the Chinese army into a fighting unit, which alone was an impossible task, and he had detractors on all sides constantly asking FDR for his recall. A very important look at the culture of command in China, the Chinese mentality of the times, and the insuperable difficulties of the theater and the conditions.

3 people found this helpful

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Teacher of Teachers

Notable for the villain: Chiang Kai Shek.

Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2017

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I knew nothing about China in WWII until I read this book. Yet the Japanese incursion into China was pretty much what this half of the war was about, just as the German invasion of Russia was the main event of the other half.

But, wow, China is a huge country with a huge history. I started off with a biography of the Empress Dowager by Jung Chang, which I recommend, with reservations, as a very useful prelude to this book (if like me you don't know the history of China). Jung Chang's book is a little too obviously bent on reforming the image of the Empress Dowager, but it's nevertheless to me a nice idea to get one's history from biography. The Empress died just three years before Stilwell first set foot in China, so I found it a good segue and culturally informative.

So back to this one. Our main protagonists are Stilwell and, yes, Chiang Kai-Shek. The author does a good job of telling the big story - China's relative absence in WWII - by contrasting these two people. Stilwell is there to do a job: fight Japan with Chinese soldiers. Chiang has a very different purpose: fight Chinese communist soldiers with Chinese nationalist soldiers after the war is over - with American arms from Lend-Lease. He's going to let the Allies handle the Japanese - yes, even though they occupy the entire Chinese coast. One reason the story can take up hundreds of pages is that Chiang, naturally, never said this directly. It's all in his holding back of soldiers and arms and the way he would hem and haw all those years.

Another story the author tells well is of the hoodwinking of the American public and, yes, president, particularly by Chiang's wife but also by the early American press. By the time the scales fall from FDR's eyes, it's too late for Stilwell to be of use.

I did not know anything about Stilwell. Truly a waste of a talented leader. By the time the book is over you'll wonder why he was there at all - and why were we? One will never know exactly what would have happened, but we had at least two reasonable possibilities it seems: (A) ignore mainland China earlier or (B) support the communists. If (A), Stilwell could have been put to so much better use. If (B), it seems he was willing to lead and at least some of them were willing to follow. It would have made for fascinating history and perhaps a better outcome after the revolution (the reality could hardly be worse).

My usual complaint about these books: I need more maps. Maybe it's just me, but if a whole chapter is going to be about troop movements I want a map for every paragraph. Also, a little repetitive. Not horribly, but more than I need.

By the way, you might find the middle sections far too detailed, but this does give the reality of Stilwell's expenditure of energy in trying to assist a nearly hopeless cause.

56 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

Amazon Customer

The WW2 Chinese/American relationship and how America chose the wrong element to support.

Reviewed in Canada on July 12, 2021

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This Barbara Tuchman classis has a new relevancy with the current US/China squabbles over Taiwan(Formosa). It was useful for me read again this chronicle of the early US involvement with the KMT leader whose corrupt leadership paved the way for the emergence of the Communist party of China led by Chairman Mao. For those who want to understand how China chose the party of Chairman Mao, this is a useful historical document. It also shows how America bungled the important early history of the "new" China.

Dr. S

Read this

Reviewed in Canada on July 10, 2021

Verified Purchase

Superb, like all of Tuchman's works. Hugely informative and entertainingly readable. Her combination of breadth, depth, humanity and sly hmour are compelling.

Overseas Reviewer

Superb foundation for learning about US relations with Asia during the cold war

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 13, 2008

Verified Purchase

This is another great book by Tuchman, author of the famed 'Guns of August'. Although lengthy, it gives wonderfully deep yet easy reading coverage of the history of the US and Chinese involvement in the China--Burma-India theater during WWII. In style and concept it is very similar to Bright Shining Lie by Sheehan about JP Vann in Vietnam.

With reference to Vietnam, I was staggered by the similarities between US involvement with Chaing KS and Diem 20 years later and would love this to have been discussed in this book.

The writing style is engaging and often very humorous owing to the cantankerous nature of the main protagonist. I particularly enjoyed Stillwell's constant references to CKS as 'the Peanut'. Good as it is, it does not touch on the ensuing civil war and the Kuomintang exile to Formosa - Mao is barely mentioned at all.

I wish I had read this before trying to understand US involvement in Korea, the debacle of McCarthyism and the ultimate disaster of Vietnam - all of which can be seen as a continuum from US involvement with the Peanut.

5 people found this helpful

AB

Great Book

Reviewed in Canada on January 19, 2022

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Excellent read. Expected no less given who the author is.

GwydionM

Bogged down in Nationalist China

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 15, 2010

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This is about a man who spent a lot of his life trying to promote Western values in China. And in particular tried to get the Nationalists to do more against the Japanese, but largely failed. Though quite right-wing in US terms, a Republican who disliked Roosevelt, he saw the Chinese Communists as a useful element. He found the supposedly pro-Western elements in China rather alien and impossible to work with. But he wasn't listened to - you might see parallels with the later Vietnam War and now the Iraq and Afghan wars.

2 people found this helpful

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