893.00/7–1748
The Ambassador in China (Stuart) to the Secretary of State 4
[Received July 26.]
Sir: I have the honor to report that on the morning of July 16 I called on President Chiang Kai-shek with the intention of giving him [Page 366] the only advice that seemed to me to have any promise in the present extremely critical situation. He asked me if I had any news and I replied that the news which seemed to me most important was the Communist general meeting to be held next month with the idea of a coalition government on the program, and the news reaching the Embassy from Hong Kong that Li Chi-shen was planning to start his Southwestern Provincial Government in the quite near future with the intention of proposing a coalition with the Communists. These developments taken in connection with the Chinese Communist broadcasts denouncing Tito and others openly committing themselves to world communism under the dictatorship of the Kremlin all supplied the background for the suggestion I had come to make. This was that he summon a small group of leaders who were generally respected and urge them to sink all personal and political differences in view of the real danger China was now facing, which was the loss of her national independence after the Communists triumphed. It had ceased to be merely an issue of Kuomintang factional politics as against Chinese Communists but was also part of a struggle between the fundamental principles of democracy and freedom on the one side and the domination of a minority controlled from Moscow on the other. The revolution and the war against Japan had been fought to win national independence which was now again jeopardized. In such a crisis he and all others ought to put the nation above all minor issues, I mentioned by name Fu Tso-yi, Li Tsung-jen, Pai Chung-hsi, and Li Chi-shen. As to this last, he should be given the opportunity and if he failed to comply on such a basis he should be denounced as preferring Russian communism to national independence. I hoped that this would result in a joint declaration appealing to all who wanted a free nation to face the realities and support the cause. The financial crisis and the economic hardships were very real, but even these were less important than the basic issue. It should be thought of primarily as a war of ideas and he ought to beat the others to it with skillfully prepared publicity. He said that he agreed in principle and would think it over very carefully, and added that he had been planning for a conference to reorganize the Kmt. I said that I was quite familiar with this but that my concern was more in personal relationships among the outstanding leaders and that this ought to be as dramatic as possible in order to convince the public.
He then asked about American opinion and I told him that Governor Dewey’s announcement about increased aid to China5 had produced quite a bit of unfavorable editorial and other comment. [Page 367] I had with me the latest USIS bulletin on this subject,6 which I gave his secretary for reference. I added, however, that if there should be a movement of the kind I was advocating which showed vitality, it would help to neutralize the feeling in the United States that this Government had been too weakened to make any assistance to it of much use. I told him that after all the greatest help that America could give was not money nor military advice but the dynamic force of our ideals which were shared by a great many Chinese but were being misrepresented and replaced by those of the Soviet Union.
He said that Americans tended to overrate the importance of Li Chi-shen, to which I replied that the man himself and his immediate followers need not be taken too seriously but that the whole nation was desperately anxious for peace and that with this popular mood any movement that held out the hope of peace through an understanding with the Communists might find more hearty support than he expected. It seemed to me, therefore, that whatever he did ought to be done with as little delay as possible. He said again that he would think the matter over carefully.
In attempting to draw conclusions from this interview the dominant impression is one of futility. I seriously question whether President Chiang has that quality of greatness which would enable him to assemble those leaders not already completely subservient to him and so to treat them as comrades as to draw out their own ideas in reaching a consensus of opinion and a group decision. The habits of twenty years, reinforced by Chinese traditional concepts, would be hard to alter. If he makes the attempt to cooperate with such a body he probably could not bring himself to do so graciously and with the unreserved sharing of minds which alone would win their confidence and impress the public. Any jointly issued statement would reflect these limitations and be unconvincing. He would also tend to draw in those upon whom he can depend which would further vitiate the effect. But nothing less than such a unified appeal, dramatic in its note of sincerity and urgency, would startle the now apathetic or disillusioned people of the country into realizing that something new and inspiring was actually happening on the highest level of their Government. Any effort to urge him further than I have done would either have to imply much more American aid than is possible or would over-persuade him to relinquish his own judgment. In either case he would cease to be true to himself and the results would almost certainly be unfortunate. It would seem, therefore, that he must be allowed to go his own way, modified to be sure to some extent by suggestions [Page 368] from others, or that sooner or later there will be a movement which will force him out of his present ascendancy. He seems unable to think of Communism as an extreme form of social unrest which cannot be extirpated by the combination of military force and gracious compassion which he thinks to be the method taught by Chinese history. It is tragic that the very qualities of grimly inflexible determination and enduring courage which fitted him preeminently for incarnating the popular will to resist Japan are now in some real sense a hindrance to him in problems calling for very different mental processes.
Respectfully yours,
- Copy transmitted by the Department to the Ambassador in the Soviet Union in instruction No. 126, August 5, 1948.↩
- For statement by Thomas E. Dewey, Governor of New York, see the New York Times, June 26, 1948, p. 1.↩
- For excerpt from the bulletin, see United States Relations With China, p. 876, footnote 21.↩