The China Mirage: The Hidden History of American Disaster in Asia

by James Bradley

Overview

From the bestselling author of Flags of our Fathers, Flyboys, and The Imperial Cruise, a riveting, revisionist history of US-China relations from the 19^th century to the dawn of World War II.

In each of his books, James Bradley has exposed the hidden truths behind the history of America's engagement in Asia. In Flags of our Fathers he revealed the painful legacy of Iwo Jima; in Flyboys he told the unknown story of a group of lost American pilots in the Pacific; and in The Imperial Cruise he laid bare the hidden origins of the Spanish-American War. THE CHINA MIRAGE is his most ambitious book yet, a vast history of American-Chinese relations from its missionary origins to the eve of WWII. Sure to be controversial in its dark portraits of those whom conventional history has acclaimed, potent in its critique of the missionary instinct, and brilliant in its exploration of the power of myth and mirage to convince men and women and nations that destiny is on their side, this is James Bradley's most intrepid work yet. And at a moment when relations between China and America are Topic #1, the book--the vigorous discussion it will spawn--could not be better timed.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316410670
Publisher:	Little, Brown and Company
Publication date:	04/21/2015
Edition description:	Large Print
Pages:	608
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 2.00(d)

About the Author

James Bradley is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Imperial Cruise, Flyboys, and Flags of Our Fathers, and a son of one of the men who raised the American flag on Iwo Jima.

Table of Contents

Introduction 3

1 Old China, New China 13

2 Win the Leaders; Win China 37

3 The Japanese Monroe Doctrine for Asia 51

4 The Noble Chinese Peasant 85

5 The China Lobby 133

6 The First Wise Man's New China 169

7 Washington Warriors 195

8 Secret Executive Air War in Asia 221

9 A War Over Oil 245

10 Asleep at the Wheel 275

11 The Mandate of Heaven 297

12 Who Lost China? 329

13 The China Mirage 363

Copyright Acknowledgments 373

Acknowledgments 375

Notes 377

Index 405

Editorial Reviews

Pete Larkin offers a solid narration of this examination of U.S. foreign policy on China. His tone is often engaging and sometimes conversational but always clear and easy to follow, even when navigating sentences with Chinese names. Occasionally, his efforts are undermined by the author's use of dependent clauses in the middle of sentences, which can make it difficult for listeners to link subject and verb. As the book's title implies, U.S. perception of China for nearly two centuries has been a mirage. That failure to see reality sometimes was manipulated by Chinese leaders and other times was due to our own misunderstandings or even delusions. The book is enlightening and translates fairly well to audio. R.C.G. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine

APRIL 2015 - AudioFile

2015-01-28
Best-selling author Bradley (The Imperial Cruise: A Secret History of Empire and War, 2009, etc.) uncovers the 19th-century plan to create a "New China" and "Americanize Asia."The author clearly feels duped by American foreign policy since the debacle in Vietnam shamed his World War II father and destroyed his soldier brother. In this relentless critique of wrongheaded thinking by government officials who did not speak the Asian languages and had little hands-on experience, Bradley focuses especially on the foreign policy of the two Roosevelts. Theodore Roosevelt was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1905 for negotiating the peace in the Russo-Japanese War, thereby secretly offering Japan the opportunity to swallow Korea and begin its aggressive stalking into China. Franklin Roosevelt was clearly seduced by the Chiang Kai-sheks (Generalissimo and Madame) and the China Lobby into giving financial support that did nothing to resist the Japanese invaders and could not defeat Mao Zedong, whose peasant army had the wide support of the people. Bradley begins with the imperial aggression by Britain and America in pushing Indian-grown opium on the Chinese populace, a lucrative trade that enriched the well-born families like the Delanos (FDR's maternal side) and caused the two disastrous Opium Wars. While the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 barred Chinese immigration to the United States, prodded by labor strife across the Western states, the Christian missionaries propagated the ideal of a New China, westernized, Christianized and democratized, led by leaders who had studied in the U.S. Ultimately, the China Lobby misled FDR on the true gains of Mao and pressured the U.S. to cut off the oil spigot to Japan, causing it to cast its covetous eyes to the Dutch East Indies. Bradley delivers a strenuous exposé about the initial building of the "rickety bridge of fellowship crossing the Pacific."

Kirkus Reviews