Way Cool post, Andrew. Indeed, we can only speculate how much shorter the war might have been had the U.S. helped the Chinese Red Army against the Japanese. Of course, the idea of arming communists to help defeat America's enemies was simply too radical back then. [Insert comical link to socialist-realist WWII-era poster of Josef Stalin.]

So instead Chiang sat the war out in Chongqing (Chungking), delighted to have the U.S. defeat Japan while he warehoused an arsenal (humped over the Himalayas or trucked in from Burma by Americans at great cost) to use not against the Japanese but against the Communists. Not that it did him much good in the end, as the Chinese people rallied around those who had fought the Japanese and spurned those who had not.

Your younger readers might not know that the U.S. liaison at Yenan (Wedemeyer?) and diplomats familiar with the situation "on the ground" in China during WWII were urging the U.S. to abandon the useless Chiang Kai-shek and instead aid the Reds. It was their reports that, after "The Peanut" fled to Taiwan behind the guns of the U.S. Navy, were taken out of context by TIME magazine ("Who lost China?") and McCarthy and enabled the Gop's witchhunt against "communists" in the State Dept. and elsewhere.

Thanks for turning me on to Frog in a Well and for reconnecting me with the Landsberger site for socialist-realist PRC poster art. Bike California, if you must; but I love this stuff. Finally, I mean no disrespect to the people of Taiwan and their great achievements.

so much fascinating stuff gets lost or ignored or forgotten, at least by the US. I would lay heavy odds, however, that the current General Zhu remembers his grandfather's snub. Our simplistic understanding of what's going on in East Asia has been a constant problem. My favorite case in point, the Korea situation is not really democracy vs communism, but the three outside powers jockying for influence, i.e. China, Russia and Japan, something that really started in the mid-1800s. This is something I've been instructed in with gory details by my wife's family, since they remember the problems quite well. My wife's great aunt was the last ruling queen, Queen Yun, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunjeong_of_Korean_Empire, and her g-g aunt was Queen Min, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Myeongseong

Both women were Korean patriots who did their best to stop the takeover of the country. The US tried twice to force an opening of the country in the style of Perry in Japan during Queen Min's reign, while she tried to balance Russia and China against Japan. After her assassination, when the Japanese were close to a complete takeover, they sought and received Theodore Roosevelt's approval. Queen Yun did what she could, including hiding the great seal of state, so the invaders never were able to pretend it was anything other than an invasion by force. Those relationships as much as anything between the US and USSR were what underlay the Korean War of the 1950s. What if Roosevelt hadn't okayed the Japanese takeover? Dunno, but it's an interesting thought.

Years ago the famous author Theodore White wrote about China as he was a sinologist and very intimately acquainted with the conditions of the Sino-Japanese war. Both Mao and Chang-Kia-Scheck (?) were fighting the Japanese. In one of his books White told of the request made by the Mao faction to the U.S. to help him defeat Chang. It was Dulles, the Secretary of State at the time who was obsessed with the Communists and fearful of the domino effect.

Mao was not given the help and the rest is history. Much bloodshed and animosity could have been avoided if a more intelligent attitude had prevailed.