The China Mission

De: Daniel Kurtz-Phelan

Narrado por: Malcolm Hillgartner

A spellbinding narrative of the high-stakes mission that changed the course of America, China, and global politics - and a rich portrait of the towering, complex figure who carried it out.

As World War II came to an end, General George Marshall was renowned as the architect of Allied victory. Set to retire, he instead accepted what he thought was a final mission - this time not to win a war, but to stop one. Across the Pacific, conflict between Chinese Nationalists and Communists threatened to suck in the United States and escalate into revolution. His assignment was to broker a peace, build a Chinese democracy, and prevent a Communist takeover, all while staving off World War III.

In his 13 months in China, Marshall journeyed across battle-scarred landscapes, grappled with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, and plotted and argued with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his brilliant wife, often over card games or cocktails. The results at first seemed miraculous. But as they started to come apart, Marshall was faced with a wrenching choice. Its consequences would define the rest of his career, as the secretary of state who launched the Marshall Plan and set the standard for American leadership, and the shape of the Cold War and the US-China relationship for decades to come. It would also help spark one of the darkest turns in American civic life, as Marshall and the mission became a first prominent target of McCarthyism, and the question of "who lost China" roiled American politics.

The China Mission traces this neglected turning point and forgotten interlude in a heroic career - a story of not just diplomatic wrangling and guerrilla warfare, but also intricate spycraft and charismatic personalities. Drawing on eyewitness accounts both personal and official, it offers a richly detailed, gripping, close-up, and often surprising view of the central figures of the time - from Marshall, Mao, and Chiang to Eisenhower, Truman, and MacArthur - as they stood face-to-face and struggled to make history, with consequences and lessons that echo today.

©2018 Daniel Kurtz-Phelan (P)2018 Blackstone Publishing

Diplomatic thriller at its best

The book follows Gen. Marshall through a long series of in person meetings, dinner parties and visits spins China, masterfully providing context and character descriptions where needed. I have to say, I was impressed how engaging and easy Daniel Kurtz-Phelan (himself a former dollar and the current executive editor of the esteemed foreign affairs journal) was able to make the story of this desperate and ultimately failed mission. I couldn’t stop listening.

My only criticism I suppose is that the author is clearly star struck my Marshall and that makes the story feel a little one sided. He does mention the criticism that the mission drew, but mostly discards it as personally or politically motivated. On the same note, I felt that he didn’t go into sufficient detail regarding the main reason the mission ultimately failed, which is as he mentions in the epilogue the bigger game for world dominance between Russia and the USA. How did that “game” impact the negotiation in China specifically? Perhaps a topic for a follow up book.

Sequel to Stilwell and the American Experience in China

Before listening to this I just finished ‘Stilwell and the American Experience in China’ by Barbara W. Tuchman. This complimented Tuchman’s telling of a less than successful outcome of U.S. foreign policy. Kurtz-Phelan conveys that George Marshall had no obviously good options between the corrupt Nationalists and the fanatic Communists. He attempted to stoically and doggedly pursue negotiations between two factions who proved irreconcilable. Despite his failure, hindsight doesn’t provide particularly clearer alternatives. It is probably to the credit of Marshall, this supreme allied commander fresh from victory in World War II, that he recognized the limits of his country’s ability in resolving a land war in Asia. But Marshall would be branded a communist sympathizer and a fool for not backing the Nationalists. The wider more open ended military approach of Vietnam was in part due to LBJ’s memory of the political punishment the Democrats received for “losing China.”

Marshall’s adventure/mission in civil war China

This book is about general George Marshall and his attempt to get the fighting Chinese nationalists and communists to stop and unite China as a state. The book gets into some deep details and towards the end feels like it repeats itself or lingers too long at some parts. But the book is an excellent chronicle on how pre-Marshall Plan Marshall tried to save China from all out war, even if he ended up being blamed for losing China to the reds.
Narrator is a great voice and doesn’t struggle punctuation of Chinese names.

Interesting but incomplete

Kurtz-Phelan relates the history of general Marshall in China by the late 1940’s. His relationship with Chiang Kai Shek and about some discussions with Chou En-lai, it is instructive but lacks the entire idea of why there was a civil war in China in the first place. There were many grievances in China about land ownership by a class of people who had no interest neither in the country or its people, like Vietnam later. These problems were not part of neither Kurtz-Phelan or Gen. Marshall perspective for the future of China, but merely an anti-communist or geostrategic discussion about the cost of the potential military help.

Enthralling and Thought Provoking in 2021

This is a fascinating, skillfully crafted book.

It raises questions that confound us in 2021.

Should the United States try to persuade factions in an Asian nation gripped in a civil war to embrace liberal democratic Western values and collaborate to rule peacefully, in a coalition government?

Is that a fool’s errand? The quixotic dream of unrealistic outsiders?

More broadly, can we in the US—given our troubles—in the year 2021 sincerely promote liberal democratic Western values as the best path forward?

This book is a thoughtful rebuke to those who believe that there are simple answers to vexing problems, either abroad or in the US.