This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 66-11 791 SMITH, Robert Thomas, 1938- ALONE IN CHINA; PATRICK J. HURLEY'S ATTEMPT TO UNIFY CHINA, 1944-1945. The University of Oklahoma, Ph.D., 1966 History, modern University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan C opyright by ROBERT THOMAS SMITH 1966 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHCMA GRADUATE COLLEGE ALONE IN CHINA: PATRICK J . HURLEY'S ATTEMPT TO UNIFY CHINA, 1944-1945 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY ROBERT THCÎ-1AS SMITH Norman, Oklahoma 1966 ALŒE IN CHINA; PATRICK J . HURLEY'S ATTEMPT TO UNIFY CHINA, 1944-1945 APPP>Î BY 'c- l <• ,L? T\ . , A. c^-Ja ^v^ c c \ (LjJ LSSERTATION COMMITTEE ACKNOWLEDGMENT 1 wish to acknowledge the aid and assistance given by my major professor, Dr, Gilbert 0, Fite, Research Professor of History, I desire also to thank Professor Donald J, Berthrong who acted as co-director of my dissertation before circumstances made it impossible for him to continue in that capacity. To Professors Percy W, Buchanan, J, Carroll Moody, John W, Wood, and Russell D, Buhite, \^o read the manuscript and vdio each offered learned and constructive criticism , I shall always be grateful, 1 must also thank the staff of the Manuscripts Divi­ sion of the Bizzell Library \diose expert assistance greatly simplified the task of finding my way through the Patrick J, Hurley collection. Special thanks are due my wife vdio volun­ teered to type the manuscript and offered aid in all ways imaginable, and to my parents \dio must have wondered if I would ever find a job. Finally, I extend my gratitude to the students and faculty of the University of Oklahoma who provided the intellectual atmosphere in vdiich this project was conceived and w ritten. 111 TABLE OF CONTENTS rag e ACKNOWLEDGMENT..................................................................................... i l l C hapter X• MINER TO STATESMAN ««««eoeaeeeee**»»»»»#*»#** X IX. THE CHINESE PUZZLE........................................... 29 I I I . THE SOLUTION...................... ............................................. 43 IV. HURLEY LAYS THE GROUNDWORK..................................... 55 V. THE COWBOY MEETS THE COMMISSARS............................. 78 VI. SWEET AND SOUR.............................. ................................. 92 V II. HURLEY MARCHES O N ......................................................... 105 V III. GAMBITS, WITCH-HUNTS AND AN EARLY THAW 128 IX. A FALSE SPRING................................................................ 141 X. HURLEY REAFFIRMED......................................................... 156 X I. BIDING TIM E....................................................................... 172 X II. THE WAR ENDS...................................................................... 188 X III. THE END IN CHINA .............................................................. 204 XIV. THE FINAL BOW............................................................... 222 XV. THE VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS..................................... 246 BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................... 256 iv ALONE IN CHINA: PATRICK J . HURLEY'S ATTEMPT TO UNIFY CHINA, 1944-1945 CHAPTER I MINER TO STATESMAN The career of Patrick J. Hurley was a curious one. He traveled a path to national prominence full of shortcuts. He started out poor and, not forgetting this, fought his way to the top. Hurley, unfortunately, never realized the difference between success in fact and success in name. He became a g e n eral; but he never commanded tro o p s. He re c e iv e d h is law degree from a one year night law school. He was a diplomat by appointment rather than training, and a politician v^o never served in elective office. These titles; general, lawyer, dip­ lomat, politician, represented success to Hurley. He fought for social position like a man possessed. He knew poverty, disliked it intensely, and sought by every means to raise him­ self from the lowly station to which he was born. Hurley typified in many ways the men who made fortunes in the oil fields of Oklahoma and Texas. Hurley was a man of many facets. He was scrupulously honest. He was big, laughing, friendly. He believed that by accumulating great wealth he could buy the social position he 2 craved so badly. An anti-intellectual, he mistrusted thinkers wherever he found them, whether it be in the army, the govern­ ment, the diplomatic service, or as leaders of foreign countries. Hurley had nothing in common with them. Yet, he found much in common with the self-made men like himself who frequently held high positions around the world. He was at home with Chiang Kai-shek, Joseph Stalin, and even Franklin Roosevelt, for these men emphasized action more than thought. Hurley respected and found communion with these proud, straight­ forward men who valued position as much as he did. Hurley's roots went back to the last frontier of the American West, and it was from the red dirt hills of frontier Oklahoma that Patrick Hurley began his journey to national prom inence. He stopped a t many s ta tio n s along th e way and each one helped shape the man whom Roosevelt entrusted with America's future in the Far East. Hurley was an Irishman through and through. His father. Pierce CNeil Hurley, was an Irish rebel who found his way to Texas in the late 1860's, after a brush with British troops in Ireland. Pierce Hurley was a large, brawling man with a quick temper and ready fists. He traveled about Texas and Oklahoma, and in the late 1870's married Mary Kelly in San Marcos, Texas. Mary Kelly Hurley was as Irish as Pierce; but where Pierce was a fiery Irish rebel, Mary Kelly epitomized another aspect of Irish culture. She had a high respect for education, and passed this on to her young son Patrick before 1 3 her untimely death. In 1882, the Hurley family moved into Indian Territory and established a farm in Coal County, Okla­ homa, on land owned by Ben Smallwood, an influential Choctaw who later became chief of the Choctaw Nation. Life in Okla­ homa was hard on the Hurleys, and Pierce went to work as a 2 day laborer in the coal mines at Lehigh, Oklahoma. Born January 8, 1883, in Indian Territory, Patrick J, Hurley spent his early childhood in Phillips, Lehigh, and on the farm rented from Ben Smallwood. The influential Indian took a liking to the white boy living on his land. Young Pat spent a great deal of time at the Smallwood mansion, where he saw how the influential people of Indian Territory occupied themselves. He heard them talk of important matters and be­ came acquainted with many of the most powerful people in the Choctaw Nation. When Hurley was not at the Smallwood home, he could be found running wild in the empty lands of Indian T e rrito ry . Like his father, this young Irishman possessed a vio­ lent temper. Even in his youth, young Hurley's temper tended to get him into trouble. Once Hurley beat a man with a mace fashioned from a stick and a steel nut, and nearly killed him.^ In the rough coal mining territory, this violent temper was an a s s e t. In 1894, at the age of eleven, young Hurley began work- ^Don Lohbeck, Patrick J. Hurley (Chicago: Henry Reg- nery Co., 1956), l7-l31 ^Ibid.. 19. ^Ibid., 22-25. ^Ibid.. 26. 4 ing in the mines. His first job was as a trapper in the Number Six Mine of the Atoka Coal Mining Company in Phillip.' , Okla­ homa, Pay was poor and the hours long, but he had no alternative but to work. His mother had died in February, 1896, and Pierce Hurley injured himself in a fall from a horse at about the same time. When Patrick's elder brother left the family, he found himself the sole provider for the Hurley brood. Work in the mines held no attraction for young Hurley, and he stole every moment he could to visit his friends, the Choctaws.^ Opportunity soon knocked for Hurley when Tom Golightly, an itinerant teacher, wandered into Phillips, Okla­ homa, Golightly made a career on the frontier establishing night schools to teach uneducated frontiersmen the elements of reading, writing, and arithmetic. When Golightly opened his school in Phillips, Hurley was among the first to attend. When Hurley moved to the head of the class, it was apparent that the young Irishman possessed a keen mind, Golightly took a liking to the young man and encouraged him in his pursuits. At Golightly's school, Hurley first realized the A potential of his mind.'' But, thoughts of school and mining left him with the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, The Spanish-American War gave Hurley the chance he sought to leave the dreary mines of Phillips, Oklahoma. Theodore Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of Navy, was re- ^Ibid, . 27-28. ^Ibid,. 30. 5 cruiting cowboys to form a volunteer cavalry regiment. Al­ though he was only fifteen years old, Hurley volunteered and got as far as Tampa, Florida, before the authorities realized that he was under age. Hurley never made it to Cuba, but he returned to Oklahoma determined never again to work in the minesHurley drifted around working as a cowboy, but knew that a university education held the key to the success he so desperately wanted. He became determined to gain admittance to the Indian University, later Bacone College, located just outside Mus­ kogee, Oklahoma, Hurley lacked the prerequisites to attend the University, but his persistence won him acceptance to the prep school division of the Indian University, He completed his work there in one year and then he enrolled in regular college courses. He soon became one of the most active stu­ dents at the University, He played a French horn in the orchestra, was a first baseman on the baseball team, sang in the University choir, captained the football team, led a de­ bate squad, and edited the school newspaper. In fact, young Hurley acted as assistant professor on the faculty of history while a sophomore.