Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Following the phenomenal success of General George C. Marshall's leadership of the American army during World War II, he was the standout candidate for a vital international mission: brokering a coalition government between China's warring Nationalists and Communists. Marshall went overseas as a U.S. "special representative" and began enacting miraculous change. Under Marshall's guiding hand, China's embattled political factions agreed to a ceasefire and settled on the principles of a democratic government. But over the next ten months, Marshall's mission soured: the agreements he brokered fractured and civil war came to China after all.
This fascinating narrative history portrays the incredible beginnings and ultimate failure of Marshall's high-stakes mission, with a remarkable cast of characters featuring a heroes' gallery of American diplomats--Truman, Eisenhower, MacArthur, and many others. In spellbinding, pinpoint detail, The China Mission chronicles an unforgettable misstep in American diplomacy that changed the course of global politics forevermore.
Synopsis
As World War II came to an end, General George Marshall was renowned as the architect of Allied victory. Set to retire, he instead accepted what he thought was a final mission--this time not to win a war, but to stop one. Across the Pacific, conflict between Chinese Nationalists and Communists threatened to suck in the United States and escalate into revolution. His assignment was to broker a peace, build a Chinese democracy, and prevent a Communist takeover, all while staving off World War III.
In his thirteen months in China, Marshall journeyed across battle-scarred landscapes, grappled with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, and plotted and argued with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his brilliant wife, often over card games or cocktails. The results at first seemed miraculous. But as they started to come apart, Marshall was faced with a wrenching choice. Its consequences would define the rest of his career, as the secretary of state who launched the Marshall Plan and set the standard for American leadership, and the shape of the Cold War and the US-China relationship for decades to come. It would also help spark one of the darkest turns in American civic life, as Marshall and the mission became a first prominent target of McCarthyism, and the question of "who lost China" roiled American politics.
The China Mission traces this neglected turning point and forgotten interlude in a heroic career--a story of not just diplomatic wrangling and guerrilla warfare, but also intricate spycraft and charismatic personalities. Drawing on eyewitness accounts both personal and official, it offers a richly detailed, gripping, close-up, and often surprising view of the central figures of the time--from Marshall, Mao, and Chiang to Eisenhower, Truman, and MacArthur--as they stood face-to-face and struggled to make history, with consequences and lessons that echo today.