Comments on: An American General’s Legacy in China http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/travel/2011/11/an-american-generals-legacy-in-china/ Just another blogs.smithsonianmag.com site Fri, 22 Jun 2012 14:37:54 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4 By: filo vance http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/travel/2011/11/an-american-generals-legacy-in-china/#comment-151 filo vance Wed, 30 Nov 2011 06:26:36 +0000 http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/travel/?p=331#comment-151 It was what endeared Stillwell to his ground-pounders, which turned-off most airmen - the view from below that he was fluent in Mandarin Chinese; an infantry-man's man, but could not see that the air corps stood higher in the pecking-order of the supreme commander of the Chinese theater of war. Chennault, on the other hand relied heavily in his trusted interpreters and had the southern US-educated Chinese first lady's admiration bottled along with the Coca Colas he inadvertently popularized in China. Chennault also was born under a lucky star - persons of influence and talent somehow gravitated his way. It's no secret that the American Presidency was visited by China's biggest lobbyist of the time, TV Soong (brother to Madame Chiang)and his trust in Chennault reinforced FDR's belief that it took mavericks to win a war... but two mavericks pulling on the same string in what was the world's longest supply route for Americans fighting an enemy, alongside their allies' immense foot-soldier capability, turned out not to favor the old 'vinegar' model as much as the man who allowed his constituency to paint sharks-mouths, naked ladies and Panda bears on their aircraft & leather flight jackets. Who truly were the most photographed? Who were to become bigger-than-life Heros to a US public? One can argue that the Ledo or Stillwell Road was a feat of engineering, but remember those same experts had said just a few years earlier it would take American know-how and engineering skills 5-years to complete a road from Rangoon to Kunming, yet the Chinese did it passably well using just their hands in less than a year! America was just not strong enough to defend the Burma Road against the Japanese advances because Chennault was plagued by shortages of fuel, spare-parts and ammunition, most of which never arrived and what did had to be shared if of value to the Ameican theater Commander. It was what endeared Stillwell to his ground-pounders, which turned-off most airmen – the view from below that he was fluent in Mandarin Chinese; an infantry-man’s man, but could not see that the air corps stood higher in the pecking-order of the supreme commander of the Chinese theater of war. Chennault, on the other hand relied heavily in his trusted interpreters and had the southern US-educated Chinese first lady’s admiration bottled along with the Coca Colas he inadvertently popularized in China. Chennault also was born under a lucky star – persons of influence and talent somehow gravitated his way. It’s no secret that the American Presidency was visited by China’s biggest lobbyist of the time, TV Soong (brother to Madame Chiang)and his trust in Chennault reinforced FDR’s belief that it took mavericks to win a war… but two mavericks pulling on the same string in what was the world’s longest supply route for Americans fighting an enemy, alongside their allies’ immense foot-soldier capability, turned out not to favor the old ‘vinegar’ model as much as the man who allowed his constituency to paint sharks-mouths, naked ladies and Panda bears on their aircraft & leather flight jackets. Who truly were the most photographed? Who were to become bigger-than-life Heros to a US public?

One can argue that the Ledo or Stillwell Road was a feat of engineering, but remember those same experts had said just a few years earlier it would take American know-how and engineering skills 5-years to complete a road from Rangoon to Kunming, yet the Chinese did it passably well using just their hands in less than a year! America was just not strong enough to defend the Burma Road against the Japanese advances because Chennault was plagued by shortages of fuel, spare-parts and ammunition, most of which never arrived and what did had to be shared if of value to the Ameican theater Commander.

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