China assignment

THIS ESSAY sketches the development of United States relations with China from the middle of 1949 to the beginning of 1958, as seen from Canton, Hong Kong, Taipei, and during short trips to the United States. It was written abroad, in spare moments, where documentary material often was unavailable. Moreover, author could not know all that was happening behind the scenes in Washington, particularly outside the Department of State. He venture to say, how ever, that my position during this period of eight and one-half years permitted me to see as much of the whole picture as any American dealing with Chinese affairs.
It will be noted that quotations are very largely from correspondence that he prepared. This need not imply claims to originality for the ideas presented. Many persons in and outside the United States government were thinking, speaking, and writing along similar lines. Still others, no less conscientiously, were developing quite different approaches to the China problem. However, extensive inclusion of material written at the time is the most convenient way of describing the unfolding scene as it appeared to me at successive posts abroad, and without the benefit of hindsight. Some of these excerpts may sound unwarrantedly alarming, or seem to support unduly the side of Nationalist China.