At the beginning of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Chiang Kai-shek had two of his most trusted foreign advisers, one was General Falkenhausen from Germany, who was mainly responsible for participating in and formulating the army's combat plan, and personally went to the front line during the Battle of Songhu to assist the Nationalist army in deploying defense, while the other was Captain Chennault from the United States (who was appointed by the Nationalist government to the rank of colonel after coming to China), mainly responsible for participating in and formulating the combat plan of the air force. As we all know, from the fall of the Qing Dynasty to the outbreak of the War of Resistance, poor and weak China has been "looked at by the tiger" by neighboring Japan, and later with the occurrence of historic events such as the September 18 Incident and the July 7 Incident, Japan has finally torn its face and begun to march toward China in a big way, and has made wild remarks: The destruction of China within three years has resulted in three months of fighting in Shanghai alone, and has paid the price of tens of thousands of casualties, and behind these "figures", Falkenhausen and Chennault also contributed their own strength.
Later, under the pressure of Japanese diplomacy, General Falkenhausen had to get up and return to China under Hitler's strict orders, and became a Chinese anti-war propagandist for free in Germany, and compared with Falkenhausen, Chennault seemed to be somewhat "untamed", he not only ignored the order to return to China, but also continued to be active in the Chinese battlefield, but in order not to stimulate the Japanese, his activities gradually turned to private (similar to mercenaries), until the outbreak of the Pacific War, his identity was again recognized by the United States. In March 1942, american general Stilwell came to China, served as the chief of staff of the Chinese theater and the commander of the US military in the China-Burma-India theater, not only had the right to mobilize the army, even the "old qualification" Chennault of the air force was also under his jurisdiction.
From the perspective of historical ties with China, Stilwell visited China as early as 1911, and it can be said that his feelings for China are no less than those of Falkenhausen and Chennault. After the end of World War I, Stilwell was appointed as the first language officer in China, and then rushed to the University of California, Berkeley to study Chinese, and came to China again the following year, from 1920 until the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Stilwell has inspected and traveled to northeast China, Outer Mongolia, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Xuzhou, Nanjing, Shanghai and other regions, footprints almost all over China, during this period, he not only contacted and learned about the various social conditions in China at that time, but also made friends with many famous people from all walks of life. These experiences also laid a solid foundation for his future work. After the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan, Stilwell organized an intelligence group responsible for timely reporting the progress of the war to the United States, and returned to China in August 1939 as the commander of the 3rd Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division.
After the outbreak of the Pacific War, Stilwell returned to China as chief of staff of the Chinese Theater and commander of the U.S. Military in the China-Burma-India Theater, mainly responsible for the management and distribution of U.S. aid to China and commanding allied forces on the Burmese battlefield to fight the Japanese army. Although it seemed to be in power, the British did not buy his account, but fled all the way to India, without any regard for the safety of friendly forces, so that the Chinese expeditionary force was always in danger of being divided and surrounded by the enemy. In the face of the "treachery" of the British, the supreme commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Force, Du Yuming, was also very unhappy about this, so when Stilwell asked him to concentrate his forces to fight a hard battle with the Japanese army alone, Du Yuming unceremoniously refused his request, so angry that Stilwell flew to Chongqing on the same day to "complain" to Chiang Kai-shek, and in order to appease Stilwell, Chiang Kai-shek asked Luo Zhuoying to rush to Burma as the commander-in-chief of the expeditionary force, and then he personally sent Luo Zhuoying to Luo Zhuoying. Du Yuming announced in person that Stilwell held full authority over the promotion and dismissal of all officers of the expeditionary force, and this time the "forced palace" also made the contradiction between Stilwell and Chiang Kai-shek begin to intensify.
After the Battle of Yuxianggui began, the Nationalist army lost thousands of miles of land and retreated on the battlefield, so Stilwell, who "hated iron and steel," used his achievements in the Burmese battlefield to openly "satirize" Chiang Kai-shek, which made Chiang Kai-shek furious and strongly demanded the removal of Stilwell, and the United States, in order to protect its own interests, also decided to transfer back to Stilwell and send General Wei Demai, who had a more "moderate" personality, to take over. If the contradiction between Chiang Kai-shek and Stilwell is caused by military and political "conflict", then why did Chennault, who was also a soldier, "not get along" with Stilwell? In fact, as early as when Stilwell came to China, he had made suggestions to Chiang Kai-shek, and pointed the spearhead directly at the air force, believing that the air force could only inflict losses on the enemy army, not the key to victory, but to decide the victory or defeat, it was necessary to rely on the army to occupy the position, so he did not agree with Chennault's idea that the army alone could defeat the Japanese.
In addition to the difference in strategy, Chennault and Stilwell also appear to be "incompatible" in personality, the former is more rigorous and "vitriolous" (Marshall called him "vinegar Joe"), while the latter is "big grin" and "informal", so under such a personality collision, the relationship between the two began to deteriorate gradually with the passage of time, Stilwell looked down on Chennault's "military style", and Chennault also scorned Stilwell's "conservative style", so synthesize the above content to analyze, In the war situation at that time, in addition to the strategic differences between the two men, they also occupied a large part in their personalities, after all, "radical" and "conservative" have been contradictory "products" since ancient times.