The China Mission: George Marshall's Unfinished War, 1945-1947

by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan Narrated by Malcolm Hillgartner

Overview

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 thirteen 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.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Aaron L. Friedberg

Thoroughly researched and compellingly written, [The China Mission] is at once a revealing study of character and leadership, a vivid reconstruction of a critical episode in the history of the early Cold War and an insightful meditation on the limits of American power even at its peak.

John Pomfret

"The story Kurtz-Phelan tells is a gripping one [and] does a splendid job of delineating Marshall’s evolving relationships. … [A]n enormous contribution to our understanding of Marshall."

Odd Arne Westad

"An outstanding book on a very important subject: how to use American power judiciously and effectively in a rapidly changing world."

Orville Schell

"Kurtz-Phelan has written a marvelous narrative about General George Marshall’s valiant effort to bring Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong together at the end of WW II. But apart from the engrossing China saga, what makes this books so absorbing - and sometimes even even touching - is that it draws the reader into the life of a truly great American, reminding us of a different time in America’s odyssey when a sense of modesty, service to mankind, and duty to country were enthroned and esteemed."

Economist

"[A] compelling portrait of a remarkable soldier and statesman, and an instructive lesson in the limits of American power, even at its zenith."

New York Review of Books - Roderick MacFarquhar

"Now [Marshall’s China mission] has been brilliantly described in the detail it deserves by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, the executive editor of Foreign Affairs, who seems to have consulted all relevant primary and secondary sources. ... Kurtz-Phelan is particularly good at using his various sources to bring Marshall’s personality to life."

Aaron Friedberg

"Thoroughly researched and compellingly written, [The China Mission] is at once a revealing study of character and leadership, a vivid reconstruction of a critical episode in the history of the Cold War and an insightful meditation on the limits of American power even at its peak."

Wall Street Journal

"Deeply researched and written with verve, [The China Mission] ought to be read by any U.S. foreign-policy maker practicing diplomacy in Asia.… Mr. Kurtz-Phelan has performed a service in reviving this important episode with such aplomb, rigor and pace."

Evan Thomas

"Was America’s greatest statesman to blame for America’s greatest diplomatic failure? In this wonderfully written book, Daniel Kurtz-Phelan sheds a bright light on a crucial but dimly understood chapter in U.S. foreign policy. His portrait of General George Marshall is a model of empathetic but clear-eyed biography and a memorable lesson in the limits of power."

John Lewis Gaddis

"The best character study of Marshall I’ve yet seen. He comes alive here as in nothing else that’s been written about him. A major achievement."

Evan Osnos

"In gripping, crystalline detail, Kurtz-Phelan has given us a vital new chapter on American statecraft. The lessons from what he calls the ‘unsettled world’ of the early Cold War are urgently relevant today. The China Mission will be read for years to come as a window on the origins of American power—and the limits of its reach."

Fareed Zakaria

"America has always sought to convert rather than understand China, whether to Christianity or capitalism. In this brilliant historical study, Daniel Kurtz-Phelan focuses on the pivotal moment of misunderstanding between these two very different countries. As a bonus, he provides a beautifully written portrait of George Marshall, a statesman of such integrity that he seems as far removed from Washington, D.C., today as would an ancient Roman."

Madeleine Albright

"The China Mission has much to teach us about both the past and future of American leadership—and about what individual leadership means in the face of hard choices. I have rarely read such a vivid account of how diplomacy really works."

Economist

"[A] compelling portrait of a remarkable soldier and statesman, and an instructive lesson in the limits of American power, even at its zenith."

JULY 2018 - AudioFile

Malcolm Hillgartner’s bass pitch and stately American tone sound like the mid-twentieth century, and this is a very mid-twentieth-century story. In late 1945, immediately after engineering the Allied victories in WWII, Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall was directed by President Harry S. Truman to lead a special mission to China to negotiate a coalition government between the Nationalist Army, led by Chiang Kai-shek, and the Communists, led by Mao Zedong. It was supposed to be a short, uncomplicated task, but as months of mediation failed and civil war loomed, the listener can hear in Hillgartner’s voice that the United States was headed for a major diplomatic setback and the first stages of the Cold War. B.P. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2018-01-23
A comprehensive history of one of the United States government's greatest diplomatic failures, presided over by one of the country's greatest diplomats.In December 1945, with China dissolving into civil war between Mao Zedong's Communists and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists, President Harry Truman sent retired Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall (1880-1959) to fix matters. Unfortunately, his efforts failed miserably, and "many Americans would give Marshall and his mission a bitter share of the blame" for "losing" China, writes journalist Kurtz-Phelan, executive editor of Foreign Affairs, in this astute and surprisingly entertaining account. Everyone believed that if anyone could succeed, it was Marshall, who had overseen the largest military expansion in U.S. history, emerging from World War II as perhaps America's most admired public figure. Most experts knew that Chiang's government was a mess, but no one wanted American troops to become involved. Furthermore, "regime change" did not become the preferred policy for another 60 years, so the administration hoped to persuade Chiang to reform and the Communists to join a coalition government. To universal amazement, within weeks of arriving, Marshall achieved a cease-fire, followed by Chiang agreeing to end one-party rule and the Communists agreeing to dissolve their army and integrate troops into a national military force. Then progress stopped. Chiang and his party refused to share power. At first, Stalin supported Marshall because he believed the Communists would lose a civil war. As East-West hostility grew throughout 1946, he changed his mind. Although Marshall remained for another frustrating year, on his departure in January 1947, civil war was underway. A superb researcher, Kurtz-Phelan ably narrates an exasperating story featuring a genuinely peerless hero doing his best in a no-win situation.The definitive history of a failure from which the U.S. seemingly learned nothing (civil war in Vietnam was already heating up).

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169725070
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	04/10/2018
Edition description:	Unabridged

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