How the Far East Was Lost: American Policy and the Creation of Communist China, 1941-1949 by Dr. Anthony Kubek

Author:Dr. Anthony Kubek [Kubek, Anthony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, United States, Europe, General, Germany, Asia, Japan
ISBN: 9781787205963
Google: cg0qDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2017-06-27T23:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER XIII — CONGRESS LOOKS THE OTHER WAY

Important hearings regarding the situation in the Far East were held before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in December, 1945. The star witness was Major-General Patrick J. Hurley, former Ambassador to China.

The significance of these hearings comes to light after practices disclosed by Hurley were later proved to be contributing factors in the Communist conquest of China. Shady activities of our foreign service officials in China and an anti-Chiang attitude on the part of our China Division indicated a serious weakness in our Department of State in executing the established policy of the United States.

If a thorough investigation of Hurley’s charges had been carried out—the supposed purpose of the hearings—the loss of China to the Reds might have been prevented. Unfortunately, the hearings ended in a complete whitewash.

On November 28, 1945, Hurley addressed the National Press Club in Washington, D. C. He said our overall policy to preserve the administrative and territorial integrity of China was “weakened by the fact that some of our career men in the State Department were supporting the Communist armed party. Others were supporting the imperialist bloc. Both at that time were following a policy designed to keep China divided against itself.”{1068}

When Hurley released this scathing attack on the Department of State, charging sabotage of American policy in China, he had hoped exposure of the misconduct would force an investigation and cleansing of the Department. He charged that the Department of State “was covered with a veil of secrecy which prevents our people from getting the facts.” In tendering his resignation, Hurley attributed the failure of American foreign policy in Asia to the “weakness and opposition of the United States Foreign Service.” He stated that he was directed by President Roosevelt to prevent the collapse of the Government of Chiang Kai-shek. But this objective “did not have the support of all the career men” in the Department of State. Our professional diplomats sided with the Chinese Communists and continually advised them that Ambassador Hurley’s views “did not represent the policy of the United States.”

Hurley did not charge all the officials of the Embassy with disloyalty to the United States. He did make specific charges against John Paton Davies, Jr., John Stewart Service and John Carter Vincent. He criticized John Emmerson, Raymond Ludden and others, but made no specific charges against them. Those against whom he made specific charges were dismissed from the service years after his resignation, for substantially the same reasons he had stated when he requested that two of them be released from duty in China.

It is significant that Hurley did not charge that these officials were disloyal to him as Ambassador. His charges were that these three officials above-named were disloyal to the United States and were favorable to some kind of collectivism or dictatorship. He did not charge that the officials he criticized were Communists. Such a charge would be hard to prove even if the officials stood alone; but if they had the

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