The Harmony of Yin and Yank: The American Military Advisory Effort in China, 1941-1951

The American military personnel assigned to advise and assist China's armed forces, from the most senior officers to junior enlisted servicemen, endured, persevered, and despite tremendous obstacles, made steady progress in their efforts to improve the operational capabilities of that nation's military. This dissertation examines the United States military's advise and assist effort in China beginning just before America's entrance into World War II through the re-establishment of a security assistance mission to the Republic of China on the island of Taiwan. This narrative history examines the complex relationship between the American military advisors and their Chinese counterparts during a dynamic decade of international war and internal conflict. While providing the overarching strategic, political, and diplomatic context, this study focuses on the successful rebuilding of selected elements of the Chinese armed forces by American advisors after its series of costly and humiliating defeats by the Japanese military before the United States officially entered the war. This program of training, equipping, and advising these forces not only contributed to their successful participation in the campaign to retake Burma, but also enabled their defense of the Nationalist wartime capital, and facilitated their planned offensive against the Japanese at the end of the war. These American sponsored units went on to conduct extended operations against the Communists in the eastern and northeastern China until nearly the end of the Chinese Civil War. This study also discusses American military support to the post-WW II reoccupation of eastern China, repatriation of Japanese military and civilian personnel, and national reconciliation efforts between the Nationalists and the Communists. The narrative concludes by examining the reduced post-negotiation American military advisory efforts during the expanded civil conflict beginning in early 1947 through the defeat and retreat of the Nationalist government and military. This study concludes with a brief discussion of the May 1951 reestablishment of the United States Military Assistance Advisory Group to Taiwan.