Sand Against the Wind: Stilwell and the American Experience in China 1911-1945

by Barbara W. Tuchman and Barbara-wertheim-tuchman

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0333564219
• ISBN13: 9780333564219
• Release Date: January 1991
• Publisher: Papermac
• Length: 640 Pages
• Weight: 1.42 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A great soldier handed an impossible task

This was required reading for a graduate course in the history of American military affairs. Barbara W. Tuchman's book is a "riveting" biography of General "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell, who was one of America's ablest military leaders asked to perform the near impossible in World War II--train and command a Chinese Army to fight against the Japanese. Tuchman`s purpose of using Stilwell's long connections with China which started in 1911 when he was a U.S. Army 1st Lieutenant, was to explore three historical strands. First, by using a plethora of sources, including Stilwell's diaries, she excelled in her purpose of providing an unusually candid biography of Stilwell's remarkable life. Army Chief of Staff, General George C. Marshall, who personally observed Stilwell's first-rate military abilities as a trainer and leader of men, "...selected Stilwell for the post and felt responsible for having consigned him to an ill-supported mission and wasted the talents of an officer he respected as one of America's ablest field commanders" (391). However, early in Stillwell's career he came to be known by his moniker "Vinegar Joe," for his scowl whenever he thought someone or something went awry. His diary was full of pejoratives describing most British officers as "limeys," the French as "frogs," and when he soon lost all respect for Chiang he referred to him as "peanut." Though Tuchman throughout her biography displayed a great admiration for Stilwell, her caricature of Stilwell is as a man who did not possess the political skills necessary of a high-ranking officer to effectively lead a multi-national coalition in the China-India-Burma theatre of operations. Tuchman's second purpose was to use Stilwell's four visits and postings in China as the backdrop to explain China's turbulent years--1911 through 1945. This part of her book lacked the depth necessary to provide the reader a good grounding in truly understanding the ever-shifting political situation in China. However, through this strand of her book, Tuchman was able to show how Stilwell had a "missionary's" love and concern for the plight of China's "teeming masses." Throughout his various observations of China's military in his capacity as America's military attaché from 1935 to 1937, Stilwell came to have, "...confidence in Chinese soldiers as fighting material and believed that if properly led they could become the equal of any army in the world" (172). Third, Tuchman used Stilwell's life to explore America's foreign policy relationship with China, starting with America's Open Door Policy, but mainly focusing on President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's (FDR's) desire that America could find in China a democratic partner to help block and eventually crush Japan's increasing influence in Asia. Unfortunately Tuchman, through no fault of her own because there is a scant written record on the subject, was unable to understand the crux of FDR's strategic purpose in first supporting Chiang with a na