The Life of John Birch by Robert H. W. Welch Jr

Author:Robert H. W. Welch Jr. [Welch, Robert H. W. Jr.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, United States, Europe, General, Germany, Asia, Japan
ISBN: 9781787207349
Google: ZfkwDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Pickle Partners Publishing
Published: 2017-07-19T15:57:18+00:00

XIV—THE HUSH, HUSH TREATMENT

CONTRARY TO THE IMPRESSION PERHAPS OCCASIONALLY created by the enthusiasm of this biographer, John Birch did not win China’s war and our war with Japan, on the mainland of Asia, single-handed. Although outstanding, by almost every standard of appraisal, he was still just one American soldier, with only the rank of captain at the end. Why was his story kept so carefully and completely from the American people?

That there was deliberate suppression of the news there can be no doubt. The only inkling of the event to reach America was that which seeped through from private sources. Constantine Brown, in his column of November 15, 1945, in the Washington Star, stated: “Long despatches are reaching Washington from Chungking and other tender spots in China. They are all marked top secret, although they deal with what is happening to the American soldiers and sailors in that area. None has yet been officially informed about the murder of Captain John Birch by the Chinese Communists.” On November 16, 1945, Adeline Gray, who was herself a newspaper woman as well as a former instructor at Nankai, wrote John’s parents that “had not the truth been suppressed, Captain Birch’s death would have headlined every newspaper in the United States.” And she later informed Mr. W. T. Anderson, Editor of the Macon Telegraph in John’s home town, that “the murder was kept a ‘hush, hush’ affair, and no China correspondents were able to send out the story.”

Again, there can be no doubt as to the deliberate misrepresentations by the War Department to John Birch’s parents, concerning the cause and manner of his death; nor any doubt as to further and continued deliberate measures to block every effort of his parents to learn the truth. The essential accuracy of the account I have given of Captain Birch’s death is beyond question. The impact of his personality and character had been so great that several of those who had known him in China set out to write books about his life. Events moved so rapidly that not one of them ever finished the job, but I have been the heir to much of the results of their labors. My information was gathered through the efforts of many people—not including myself—over many years, and verified at many points by the agreement of independent reports from different informants who didn’t even know of each other’s statements. And at least as early as September 20, 1945, the War Department’s own internal information was headed:

Birch, John M.—Serial No. AC,

0-889028

“Killed by Chinese Communists on the Lunghai Railroad enroute to Hsuchow, China, on August 25, 1945.”

But the War Department still persisted in its official report that Captain Birch had been killed by a stray bullet, without any mention of the Chinese Communists; and still found that it had “lost” or “misplaced” the addresses of officers who might be able to tell Mr. and Mrs. Birch the truth in or through Washington. It became obvious in time that the various underlings

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