THE BATTLE FOR CHINA: THE U.S. NAVY, MARINE CORPS AND THE COLD WAR IN ASIA, 1944-1949 A Dissertation by JONATHAN BLACKSHEAR CHAVANNE Submitted to the Office of Graduate and Professional Studies of Texas A&M University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Chair of Committee, James C. Bradford Committee Members, Olga Dror Jason C. Parker D. Bruce Dickson S.C.M. Paine Head of Department, David Vaught December 2016 Major Subject: History Copyright 2016 Jonathan Blackshear Chavanne ABSTRACT The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps’ long history in China before World War II was a prelude to a little known struggle. In the aftermath of Japan’s surrender in August 1945, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps embarked on a complex series of operations to rescue Allied prisoners of war, stabilize North China, and repatriate millions of Japanese soldiers and civilians. The more than 50,000 Marines and over a hundred vessels of the U.S. Seventh Fleet committed to China repatriated over three million Japanese and transported 200,000 Chinese Nationalist soldiers to North China. While doing so, they became enmeshed in the complex military and political landscape that was the Chinese Civil War. Over the next four years, U.S. Navy leaders, intent on reestablishing the longstanding presence and strategic role of the Navy in China, opposed efforts by the U.S. Army and State Department to withdraw all U.S. forces from the vast country. From 1944 to 1949, a core group of civilian and naval leaders worked steadily to shore up Nationalist China in the face of a growing and intractable Chinese Communist Party. Unwavering in their view that China was a strategic priority and that Asia stood at the forefront of the nascent Cold War, these leaders repeatedly clashed with General George C. Marshall and President Harry Truman. Exacerbated by an atmosphere of distrust and intra-service rivalry, this conflict over China revealed stark divisions between the U.S. Navy and its sister services, and illuminated inherent differences as the United States struggled to come to terms with both the new Cold War and the reality of nuclear warfare. ii DEDICATION To my laopo, the love of my life. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A project such as this often endures many iterations, as the graduate student struggles to both amass both the research and experience necessary to create an acceptable dissertation. Originally, this project was intended to fill an obvious gap in the post-WWII historiography, that of the role of the U.S. Seventh Fleet and III Marine Expeditionary Force in North China. In the course of my research it became apparent that a study analyzing the complex and amorphous reasons for American involvement in China was needed. The existing historiography focused heavily on the separate roles of the Navy and Marines in China, or more broadly on the overall American effort in East Asia. Yet I felt this was an inadequate approach. The two services were bound inextricably together in their service in post-WWII North China. Furthermore, a study that focused more narrowly on the strong and complex disagreements that arose between the U.S. Navy and Army leadership over China would expose the deep intra-service rivalries that seemed to consume the American military during this period. My research made clear that for a small group of senior Navy leaders, China could not be cast aside in the tsunami of worldwide communist expansion. For cultural and historic reasons, the preservation of China became a strategic priority. As such the U.S. Navy’s leaders were determined to retain their traditional position as the lead U.S. service in East Asia and China. Overwhelming yet exaggerated concerns over the Cold War in Asia and the Navy’s proprietary relationship with China fueled its leaders’ desire to stay in a county that, in many ways, no longer resembled the enormous and ancient empire of previous decades. iv Over the past two and half years I have travelled to more than a dozen archives and libraries around the United States. If anything this experience has taught me that no shortcuts exist in quality historical research, and time is both your best ally and enemy. Yet no amount of adequate research can compete with proper organization. If I could go back and advise my younger self, I would tell him that a properly formatted and categorized digital photo is worth a hundred that are not. Like all graduate students who embark on this journey, I was the recipient of assistance from many smart and generous people. I cannot begin to adequately thank my adviser, Dr. James Bradford, for his knowledge, support and guidance over the past five years. With a command of naval history and editing acumen second to none, he repeatedly challenged me to keep writing and improving the final product. I am eternally grateful to all that he’s done for me. For the remainder of my committee words cannot adequately express my gratitude. Dr. Jason Parker, Olga Dror, and D. Bruce Dickson tirelessly answered my questions and assisted me with their combined decades worth of knowledge and expertise. A special thank you goes out to Dr. Sally Paine, of the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. Her encyclopedic knowledge of China and its history was invaluable to me. Overall my committee was a study in superlatives. Lastly, I need to thank my family, most notably my wife Richelle. She has stood with me the past five years on research trips, long days and nights pounding away at the laptop, and long absences in my naval career. I could never have finished this without you! To our future together! v vi CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES Contributors This work was supervised by a dissertation committee consisting of Professor James C. Bradford [advisor] and Professor(s) Olga Dror and Jason C. Parker of the Department of History, Professor D. Bruce Dickson of the Anthropology Department, and Professor S.C.M. Paine [special advisor] of the U.S. Naval War College, Newport, RI. All work for the dissertation was completed independently by the student. Funding Sources Graduate study was supported by a fellowship and research grant from Texas A&M University. The Office of Secretary of Defense Fellowship (2013-2014) supported research efforts in the Washington, D.C. area. The Vision 2020 Dissertation Enhancement Award from the Glasscock Center at Texas A&M University, awarded in 2013, made possible research trips to the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri, and the Hoover Institute at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California. vii NOMENCLATURE AAF Army Air Forces CCP Chinese Communist Party CBI China-Burma-India Theater of Operations CINCPAC Commander in Chief, Pacific CNO Chief of Naval Operations CTO China Theater of Operations FRUS Foreign Relations of the United States GMD Guomindang MEF Marine Expeditionary Force PRC People’s Republic of China OSS Office of Strategic Services SACO Sino-American Cooperative Organization UNRRA United Nations Recovery and Relief Administration USA United States Army USMC United States Marine Corps USN United States Navy viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. i DEDICATION ......................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ....................................................................................... iii CONTRIBUTORS AND FUNDING SOURCES ................................................... vii NOMENCLATURE ................................................................................................ viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................... ix LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................... xii INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER I THE U.S. ARMY, NAVY AND MARINE CORPS IN CHINA, 1900-1945 ............................................................................................................... 8 The Old China Marines, 1900-1941 ............................................................ 10 Public Opinion and the American Military in China ................................... 21 The Sino-Japanese War ................................................................................ 23 Keeping China in the War: 1941-1943 ........................................................ 28 The China Theater: The Nationalists, Communists, and SACO ................. 40 The Yalta Conference, China, and the Soviet Union ................................... 50 Japan’s Surrender and Wedemeyer’s Plea ................................................... 56 CHAPTER II “AN ENORMOUS POT, SEETHING AND BOILING” ................. 61 Albert Wedemeyer, Mao Zedong, and Chiang Kai Shek ............................ 62 The End of SACO ........................................................................................ 67 Operation Beleager ...................................................................................... 75 China Marines Again ................................................................................... 82 A Cold Fall in China .................................................................................... 87 The November Debate ................................................................................. 89 CHAPTER III NEGOTIATING