292:(arrested in 1941 and executed in 1944) was still in existence. Willoughby further claimed the Sorge spy ring had caused the "loss of China" in 1949 and was in the process of steadily taking over the U.S. government. The American Japanologist Michael Schaller wrote that Willoughby was indeed correct on some points as that Sorge was a spy for the Soviet Union and the same was probably true of certain left-wing American journalists who worked with Sorge in Shanghai in the early 1930s, but much of Willoughby's book reflected the paranoid mind of one of the most incompetent military intelligence officers ever in American history.
194:
in the State
Department who have been named as members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring, I have here in my hand a list of 205...a list of names that were known to the Secretary of State and who nevertheless are still working and shaping the policy of the State Department". The speech, which McCarthy repeated shortly afterwards in Salt Lake City, made him into a national figure. In the early 1950s, the Truman administration was attacked for the "loss" of China with Senator McCarthy charging in a 1950 speech that "
140:—had been dependable, democratic, warm and above all pro-American. Throughout the great war the United Nations Big Four had been Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin and Chiang. Stalin's later treachery had been deplorable but unsurprising. But Chiang Kai-shek! Acheson's strategy to contain Red aggression seemed to burst wide open. Everything American diplomats had achieved in Europe—the Truman Doctrine, the Marshall Plan, NATO—momentarily seemed annulled by this disaster in Asia.
166:, who wrote a number of articles responding to the report. Mao asked why Truman would provide so much support to Nationalist forces if he believed them to be so "demoralized and unpopular." Mao stated that since Truman's position of supporting a demoralized and unpopular Nationalist government was otherwise irrational, Truman must have been acting out of imperialist ambitions "to slaughter the Chinese people" by needlessly prolonging the war.
105:
argues that the president mistakenly thought of China as a great power securely held by Chiang Kai-shek, whose hold on power was actually tenuous. Davies predicted that after the war China would become a power vacuum, tempting to Moscow, which the
Nationalists could not deal with. In that sense, says
267:
In 1949, China declared independence, an event known in
Western discourse as "the loss of China"—in the US, with bitter recriminations and conflict over who was responsible for that loss. The terminology is revealing. It is only possible to lose something that one owns. The tacit assumption was that
193:
In his speech on 7 February 1950 in
Wheeling, West Virginia before the Ohio County Women's Republican Club, McCarthy blamed Acheson, whom he called "this pompous diplomat in striped pants", for the "loss of China", making the sensationalist claim: "While I cannot take the time to name all of the men
226:
were influential in bringing about a change in United States policy favorable to the
Chinese Communists." Although McCarran was careful not to call Lattimore a Soviet spy in his report, which would have allowed him to sue for libel, he came very close with the statement: "Owen Lattimore was, from
210:
had allegedly tolerated, were responsible for the "loss" of China. In a speech that said much about fears of
American masculinity going "soft" that were common in the 1950s, McCarthy charged that "prancing minions of the Moscow party line" had been in charge of policy towards China in the State
276:
criticized the "endless fight over who got it right on China, whatever the
Chinese reality. That is to say, in the peculiar debate on Communist China, the questions asked and the issues debated often reflected American partisan politics and policy spins rather than Chinese reality."
678:
had lost their effectiveness from the day that the
Communists took over in China. I believed that the loss of China had played a large role in the rise of Joe McCarthy. And I knew that all these problems, taken together, were chickenshit compared with what might happen if we lost
158:
with its catalog of $ 2 billion worth of
American aid provided to China since 1946 was widely mocked as an excuse for allowing what was widely seen as a geopolitical disaster which allowed the formation of a Sino-Soviet bloc with the potential to dominate Eurasia.
247:, in the throes of revolutionary pressures and counter-pressures that have been felt the world over. The United States has never at any time been in a position to exercise more than a minor influence on China's destiny. China was lost by the Chinese."
154:, a compilation of official documents to defend the administration's record and argue that there was little that the United States could have done to prevent Communist victory in the civil war. At the time, Acheson's
268:
the U.S. owned China, by right, along with most of the rest of the world, much as postwar planners assumed. The "loss of China" was the first major step in "America's decline." It had major policy consequences.
238:
It was not. China was—and still is—a vast continental land, diverse and disunited, peopled by some half a billion human beings—most of them living at a level of bare subsistence, immemorially exploited by
234:
attacked the thesis "that China was a sort of political dependency of the United States to be retained or given away to Moscow by a single administrative decision taken in
Washington":
101:
would not transform the Nationalist government, adding that Roosevelt's poor choice of personal emissaries to China contributed to the failure of his policy. Historian
485:
397:
93:" who were blamed for the loss of China. While they predicted a Communist victory, they did not advocate one. Davies later wrote that he and the
430:
897:
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concluded that China was indeed "lost" because of the policy followed by the State Department, declaring: "Owen Lattimore and
578:
546:
902:
856:
663:
603:
495:
115:
46:
883:. Classroom materials on the question, including a timeline, document sets, handouts, and Historical Thinking Chart.
179:
876:
178:
as an "avoidable catastrophe". It led to a "rancorous and divisive debate" and the issue was exploited by the
94:
17:
38:
106:
Waldron, "the collapse of China into communism was aided by the incompetence of Roosevelt's policy."
263:, has commented that the terminology "loss of China" is revealing of U.S. foreign policy attitudes:
438:
145:
98:
124:
35:
227:
some time beginning in the 1930s, a conscious, articulate instrument of the Soviet conspiracy."
907:
785:
The Honorable Survivor: Mao's China, McCarthy's America, and the Persecution of John S. Service
353:
285:
175:
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officers in China reported to Washington that material support to Chiang Kai-shek during the
86:
66:
302:
518:
Newman, Robert P. (Fall 1982). "The Self-Inflicted Wound: The China White Paper of 1949".
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One of the more imaginative and popular books about the "loss of China" was the 1952 book
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The report of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee in 1951 written by Senator
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186:, who, with his allies, sought scapegoats for that "loss", targeting notably
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62:
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Perpetuating Patriotic Perceptions: The Cognitive Function of the Cold War
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90:
74:
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was widely viewed within the United States as a catastrophe. The author
656:
Into the Quagmire: Lyndon Johnson and the Escalation of the Vietnam War
337:
163:
50:
863:
632:
240:
619:
Herring, George C. (1991). "America and Vietnam: The Unending War".
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was a "dilettante diplomat who cringed before the Soviet colossus".
750:
Retiring Men: Manhood, Labor, and Growing Old in America, 1900-1960
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The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of American: 1932–1972
322:
244:
53:
government in 1949 and therefore the "loss of China to communism."
182:
at the polls in 1952. It also played a large role in the rise of
365:
569:. New Approaches to International History series. London, UK:
537:. New Approaches to International History series. London, UK:
398:""Losing" the World: American Decline in Perspective, Part 1"
851:. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.
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230:
In response to the McCarran report, an editorial in the
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remembered the public reaction in 1949 in his 1973 book
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714:
738:
623:. America and the Pacific, 1941-1991 (Winter, 1991).
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386:
174:
The "loss of China" was portrayed by critics of the
752:. Lanham: University Press of America. p. 145.
567:
The Fear of Chinese Power: an International History
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The Fear of Chinese Power: an International History
881:, Truman Presidential Inquiries, National Archives
468:A Conspiracy So Immense: The World of Joe McCarthy
383:
889:
831:. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 156.
822:
820:
818:
598:. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 55–56.
815:
627:(5). Council on Foreign Relations: 104–119.
288:which claimed the Soviet spy ring headed by
520:Prologue (Journal of the National Archives)
437:. Vol. 18, no. 19. Archived from
357:, a 2013 documentary film by Mitch Anderson
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272:In a 2010 book review, American historian
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211:Department while the Secretary of State
77:after the war, along with the U.S., the
870:. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
658:. Oxford University Press. p. 25.
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470:. Oxford University Press. p. 101.
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848:Owen Lattimore and the "Loss" of China
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30:In American political discourse, the "
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868:America's Failure in China, 1941-50
144:In August 1949, Secretary of State
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829:MacArthur the Far Eastern General
116:fall of the Kuomintang government
696:"The New McCarthyism in Academe"
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594:Hirshberg, Matthew S. (1993).
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73:'s leadership, would become a
69:had assumed that China, under
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1:
898:China–United States relations
490:. Little, Brown and Company.
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789:The Journal of Asian Studies
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7:
875:The Truman Library (2019),
670:As later recalled "I knew
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845:Newman, Robert P. (1992).
827:Schaller, Michael (1989).
783:(August 2010). "Review of
400:. Guardian Comment Network
136:'s peasants, rejoicing in
903:1949 in the United States
801:10.1017/S0021911810001658
654:VanDeMark, Brian (1995).
162:The white paper outraged
431:"How China Was 'Lost' –"
27:1949 US political crisis
565:Crean, Jeffrey (2024).
533:Crean, Jeffrey (2024).
282:The Shanghai Conspiracy
125:The Glory and the Dream
109:
36:Chinese Communist Party
748:Wood, Gregory (2012).
354:The Men Who Lost China
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259:, a leading critic of
252:Reception and analysis
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396:(February 14, 2012).
286:Charles A. Willoughby
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176:Truman Administration
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87:John Paton Davies Jr.
67:Franklin D. Roosevelt
45:from the U.S.-backed
700:Thought & Action
429:(January 28, 2013).
303:George Atcheson, Jr.
34:" is the unexpected
735:, pp. 110–111.
571:Bloomsbury Academic
539:Bloomsbury Academic
482:Manchester, William
441:on December 5, 2018
435:The Weekly Standard
371:Albert C. Wedemeyer
261:U.S. foreign policy
224:John Carter Vincent
787:by Lynne Joiner".
132:The China it knew—
120:William Manchester
781:Yu, Miles Maochun
580:978-1-350-23394-2
548:978-1-350-23394-2
318:Chinese Civil War
206:, whom President
156:China White Paper
151:China White Paper
99:war against Japan
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243:and harassed by
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361:John S. Service
308:Brooks Atkinson
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232:Washington Post
208:Harry S. Truman
184:Joseph McCarthy
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95:Foreign Service
89:was among the "
71:Chiang Kai-shek
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180:Republicans
148:issued the
91:China Hands
75:great power
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378:References
338:Henry Luce
196:Communists
164:Mao Zedong
134:Pearl Buck
81:, and the
57:Background
51:Kuomintang
809:163027438
679:Vietnam."
404:March 10,
241:landlords
202:" in the
170:Aftermath
866:(1963).
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484:(1973).
466:(2005).
445:2 August
323:Cold War
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61:During
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366:Venona
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505:2019
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447:2015
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110:Loss
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