Stanley K. Hornbeck and American policy toward China, 1928-1937

Stanley K. Hornbeck occupied an important place in the history of U.S. relations with China in the twentieth century. A Rhodes scholar, an instructor in Chinese colleges, a professor at the University of Wisconsin, and at Harvard, Hornbeck was the chief advisor on Far Eastern affairs for the U.S. government from Woodrow Wilson's administration through Franklin D. Roosevelt's. From 1928 to 1937, Stanley Hornbeck headed the Far Eastern Division of the U.S. Department of State. During his tenure in that office be handled the negotiations on relinquishing American extraterritorial rights in China, and dealt with the crisis caused by Japanese occupation of Manchuria.;Little has been written about Hornbeck's career. What exists in current literature has many problems. This study attempts to arrive at a balanced interpretation of Hornbeck during his years in the Far Eastern Division. It examines his Open Door Weltanshauung and his role in policy formation. It puts Hornbeck against the background of politics, economy, public opinion, and international rivalry to determine his influence on U.S. policy toward China during his tenure in the Far Eastern Division. This study illustrates that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, Hornbeck, at his Far Eastern desk in the State Department, did not advocate a strong anti-Japanese policy because be was obsessed with the moral principles of the Open Door and American friendship with China. He did not have a preference for either China or Japan. The ultimate motivation in his policy recommendations was to defend his own perception of American interests in the Far East, which did not necessarily always coincide with that of others inside or outside the American government, nor with America's well-defined long-term interests in that part of the world. This study shows that contradictions in the pursuit of his own definition of American interests in Asia shaped misunderstandings of Stanley K. Hornbeck's role as a major Far Eastern policymaker for the U.S. government.