Few in history have been able to influence the development trend of a country and even the entire world so profoundly as the Song family. The fate and destination of the world-famous "Three Sisters of the Song Family" are still talked about by the world.
But few people really understand the true story of the Song family's struggle to hold each other back and hide their killing machines on the way to the throne of power. After several years of material collection, visits and investigations, american biographer Sterling WestGrave has a large number of precious historical materials that have never been made public, which is enough to subvert the world's traditional understanding of the Song family. In 1985, after the English version of "Song Family" was listed, it immediately detonated the whole United States, with amazing sales and caused a lot of waves in American public opinion. For a time, the positive image that the Chiang Kai-shek government had tried to maintain in the United States collapsed in an instant, Soong Mei-ling had to personally write an article to refute the author, and the Taiwan authorities even intervened in the publication and distribution of the book. The author even received anonymous death threats and has since been forced to live in seclusion.
With the authorization of CITIC Publishing Group, CBN excerpted part of "Song Family" to share with readers.
Song Meiling
When Soong Mei-ling's political career reached its peak, Chiang Kai-shek was at the end of the road
In 1943, the Cairo Conference was held, which was the culmination of Soong Mei-ling's political career and the beginning of Chiang Kai-shek's end. The protocol officers arranged for four famous leaders to sit in a row on the banks of the Nile and take a group photo, so that the purpose of this arrangement was to establish the historical status of the chairman of the committee. There are many different versions of this photo. In the photo, the chairman of the committee sits on the left side of the camera, Franklin Roosevelt sits next to him, and then there is British Prime Minister Churchill, and Mrs. Chiang sitting on the far right. Churchill wore a white three-piece suit, black socks on his feet, a cigar in his mouth, and a small gray top hat on his rounded thighs. Sitting next to him, Song Meiling was wearing an ordinary cheongsam with a short white tunic draped over it and neat bows on her shoes. (Churchill deliberately left her aside, looking at his expression as if he were joking with someone outside the camera.) The British never took the Chiangs seriously, and one of the characters in a popular Wartime radio drama in The British at the time was called "General Cash". At the other end of the photo, the chairman of the committee is wearing a brand-new military uniform with three general stars on his collar. He wore gloves and held a military hat embellished with the Kuomintang Blue Sky and White Sun emblem. Next to him, the bellied Roosevelt wore a double-breasted twill coat, and because of the photograph, he placed his disabled legs as naturally as possible. The sophisticated Roosevelt tilted his body toward the chairman as if he were talking to him about something. Chiang Kai-shek grinned and had a grudging smile on his face, as if he understood Roosevelt's words—in fact he didn't understand them at all. It is said that Roosevelt pretended to talk to him only as a small trick for the benefit of the American people, and this trick achieved excellent results that even Roosevelt himself did not expect.
Inviting Chiang Kai-shek to the Cairo Conference was Roosevelt's idea. Churchill was adamantly opposed, but Roosevelt insisted on inviting him to come. A few months ago, Roosevelt forced General Stilwell to suppress his anger and pin an American "Meritorious Service Medal" to Chiang Kai-shek's chest. After investing a lot of money and materials in China, Roosevelt wanted people all over the world to regard Chiang Kai-shek as a great international politician, one of the four giants of world politics, a person who could joke with the president of the United States. In Cairo, Roosevelt had a less pleasant discussion with Chiang Kai-shek through an interpreter. Nevertheless, Roosevelt promised that the Allies would launch offensives in Burma and the Bay of Bengal in 1944 to ease Japanese pressure on China.
In Churchill's view, the discussion of China was "both lengthy and complex and on the back burner." The Prime Minister believes that the Americans have exaggerated the role played by Chiang Kai-shek's regime in the war. He was more concerned with keeping the Japanese out of British India and planning to retake the fallen base of Singapore, which had been Britain's "highest goal" in Asia. After the meeting, Churchill and Roosevelt went directly from Cairo to Tehran to hold a meeting with Stalin. In Tehran, Roosevelt eventually heeded his advice, abandoned his war plans in Asia, and concentrated on the European theater. When the news of Roosevelt's change of plans reached Chongqing, Chiang Kai-shek was furious. He angrily told the U.S. ambassador to China that only a $1 billion loan would "convince Chinese and the military that you are very concerned about the situation here." Song Ziwen just got a $500 million loan from Washington, and the United Kingdom also provided $500 million. Now Chiang Kai-shek wants Washington to double the sums, and the "General Cashier" has struck again.
Different versions of the photograph of the Cairo conference appeared in the history textbooks of the students and in newspapers and magazines read by ordinary people, creating the illusion that the people in the photograph were very well connected. The opposite is true: Roosevelt and Chiang Kai-shek did not face each other when taking pictures, nor did they look at each other; Soong Mei-ling's presence annoyed both the British Prime Minister and the U.S. President (who had only recently managed to get her out of the White House and leave the United States) – at this moment, the Chiangs were not going uphill, but downhill. The Song family lost its mandate not in 1949, when Mao Zedong established power in Beijing, but in 1943, before the United States was inevitably entangled in its fate.
Observers who worked for the media and the State Department noticed and reported on this historic shift in trends, but their findings went unnoticed. At that time, a question that seemed rather ridiculous now was raised: How could Chiang Kai-shek lose power when the Americans really supported him behind his back? This is a classic case of a misjudgment that has been so serious that the United States has refused to admit it for decades because the sad news is what the reporters are looking for.
At this time, the Chinese Communist Party still did not have enough strength to challenge Chiang Kai-shek. 500,000 Kuomintang troops cut them off from southern China. However, despite being divided in northern China, the Communists effectively waged guerrilla warfare against the Japanese. In order to force the Communists to retreat, the Japanese army adopted the "Three Lights Policy" and destroyed the rural areas, which in turn drove more people into the ranks of the Communists. In the south, there was little fighting in the areas where the Nationalists were confronting the Japanese, as Chiang Kai-shek ordered his troops to maintain a safe distance from the enemy. Commanders on both sides traded through no man's land between the two armies, and various supplies distributed to nationalist troops through the U.S. Concession Treaty were exchanged for various Japanese consumer goods, and many made a windfall.
The real fighters were the Nationalist troops under Stilwell stationed in Burma, especially the troops under General Sun Liren. They didn't have many opportunities to fight, but when it came time to fight, such as the Battle of Myitkyina, they did a great job. Chiang Kai-shek and Chennault united to constantly denigrate Stilwell and prepare to drive him away from China, and "Sour Vinegar Joe" Stilwell each time won one victory after another under the circumstances of Chiang Kai-shek's vigorous obstruction.
In those areas nominally ruled by Chiang Kai-shek, the situation has developed into a very dangerous situation. While Kong continues his pantomime of paper money, the currency has depreciated to near nothing. With the exception of corrupt officials and officers of the army, few others could buy industrial manufactured goods. With the exception of a very small number, most of the officials who are well-fed have made a fortune by hoarding. Under such circumstances, Chiang Kai-shek foolishly supported Kong Xiangxi's latest plan to curb inflation through price limits. Producers immediately stopped supplying goods such as meat and cooking oil to the market, waiting for higher prices to emerge. In Chongqing, even the middle class has become a difficult life, and can only watch their children starve to death. Some people of insight who once supported the Kuomintang now realize that the Kuomintang is most concerned with maintaining its own rule, so they have also begun to turn the spearhead against it. Some broke with it forever, while others gently denounced the government's policies, and as a result became the target of military repression. It is inconceivable that instead of fighting the Japanese, this regime has imprisoned loyal men who dared to criticize Dai Kasa. In the Kuomintang concentration camps set up by Dai Kasa, they were beaten, starved, even beheaded, or forced to become big smokers.
In Chiang Kai-shek's army, the vast majority of soldiers were forcibly recruited, and the loyalty of the officers was only a superficial phenomenon, and did not penetrate deep into the army. This is not uncommon in China, but in ancient times, whenever a dynasty fell, the entire bureaucracy was usually taken over by the new dynasty, thus maintaining a vital continuity in administration. The typical Chinese change of dynasty replaced only the top level, but now that the bureaucracy no longer exists, one of the goals of the 1911 Xinhai Revolution was to overthrow this old system. Since then, no new bureaucracy has emerged.
Now, the "right" to rule China depends entirely on the "credibility" of the Kuomintang, its prestige, or, to be precise, "the trick or illusion of a magician." This is the essence of the Kuomintang's "Mandate of Heaven." As Chiang Kai-shek's credibility continued to decline, those who noticed the situation (like those in fairy tales who knew that the king was not actually dressed) faced great danger.
Chiang Kai-shek became more and more arbitrary. More and more control was transferred by him from the Hands of the Soong family (whom Chiang Kai-shek had always tolerated) to the CC clan of the Chen brothers (whom Chiang Kai-shek was never inseparable). Without the Chen brothers, there would be no Chiang Kai-shek today, because the Chen brothers directly represent the top brass of the Green Gang who pushed him to the peak of power, and now survival has become a problem. Du Yuesheng was too old to maintain Chiang Kai-shek's position on his own. Chiang Kai-shek eventually chose the Green Gang because his relationship with his brothers was generally much stronger than his relationship with members of the Soong family.
The influence of the Song family did not collapse in an instant. Although the power of the Chen brothers greatly exceeded that of the Song family, they still maintained their original status and titles. Chiang Kai-shek has now no longer used the liberalism represented by the Soong family to decorate the country, but has become more and more dependent on the Chen brothers and Dai Kasa, and he himself has become arrogant and arrogant like Hitler, and has become more and more arrogant towards the United States. But that didn't make him lose U.S. support for him, and U.S. government officials paid no attention to Chiang Kai-shek's human rights abuses and rule through various disguises. The dominant figure in the United States is not George Marshall, chief of the general staff, but President Roosevelt's political adviser, Harry Hopkins, who increasingly agrees with Chiang Kai-shek's views on the "communist threat" after the war. In order to please the chairman and his supporters in the United States, Washington officials represented by Hopkins and the State Department are ready to sacrifice the interests of their own people.
The U.S. government sent Naval Commander Milton Mellers to help Dai Kasa. Meles had engaged in "clandestine activities" against the Japanese in the coastal areas of China. Meles admits that the best way to accomplish a task in this strange land is to leave everything to the man who knows where the body is buried, the head of the secret service. They formed a joint cooperation agency code-named "SACO" (Sino-American Cooperation Institute). As a result, Meles did not do much to resist the Japanese, but helped Dai Kasa a lot, but Dai Kasa did not do anything for the Americans. This led to an unforgettable direct conflict between Dai Kasa and the head of the American spy, William Donovan the "Savage Bill".
Donovan was apparently well aware that Dai did everything possible not to let the U.S. Strategic Intelligence Agency know the real situation in China, but Dai and Meles were too close. After flying to Chongqing, Donovan found an opportunity at a banquet. Present at the time were the U.S. ambassador, the generals of the three services of china and the United States, Dai Kasa, and Song Ziwen. The people who attended the banquet were all drunk, and only Donovan and Dai Kasa remained awake. The dishes were served one after the other, and everyone drank until midnight. At this time, Donovan suddenly told Dai that if he prevented the agents of the Strategic Intelligence Agency from gathering intelligence in China, then the agents would operate alone. Hearing this, everyone present was shocked.
Dai said with a smile on his face, "If the Strategic Intelligence Agency wants to act alone from the Sino-US cooperation center, I will kill all your agents." ”
"You killed one of our agents," replied Donovan, "and I'll kill one of you generals." ”
"You can't talk to me like that." Dai Kasa said.
"That's what I said to you." Donovan replied.
However, such a straight-forward conversation scene is still rare. Little did the Americans know that because the U.S. State Department did not care about the reminders of observers in China, it was falling into a trap step by step. Only a handful of the secret reports they sent back were able to reach the secretary of state, and most of the rest were intercepted by a group of pro-Chiang Kai-shek men within the State Department. Although the U.S. Secretary of State cannot see these reports, Chinese can. According to intelligence gathered by the FBI at the time, a person at the top of the State Department had been transferring the secret information directly to the China Defense Supply Corporation, and Song Ziwen reviewed it before taking appropriate measures according to his own needs. Thus, those sent by the U.S. government to China to monitor Chiang Kai-shek's regime were actually serving the Soong family, not President Roosevelt.
The situation at the War Department is very different. General Marshall was suspicious of Chiang Kai-shek, believing Stilwell's warnings, but it was not easy to persuade Roosevelt to be suspicious of Chiang Kai-shek. The president's ears are now full of pro-China words like those around Harry Hopkins, Cocoran and Son. With so many people close to the president stirring up trouble there, it's impossible to discuss China rationally. With his superb means, Joseph Althorp made Chongqing's affairs even more chaotic. Initially, Mr. Erthorpe was sent to China to serve as Chennault's "press aide-de-camp," in charge of public relations. He was later captured by the Japanese in Hong Kong and repatriated. Mr. Elthorp used his influence to find a new position: as the delegate to Chongqing for the Lend-Lease Act, and once again threw himself into the campaign to bring down Stilwell.
After the Japanese launched Operation One in East China in 1944, Stilwell's problem reached a white-hot level. The campaign was the first large-scale Japanese military operation after the fall of Wuhan in 1938. This was done because U.S. submarines had invaded Japanese waters to intercept sea lines to the Southeast Asian empire it had built. At present, those remote strategic positions are scarce in materials and are vulnerable to Allied attacks. The only alternative transport line for the Japanese was the main railway line running through the north and south of China, which had not been of much use to them before. In addition, they planned to blow up the new air bases built by Chennault's Fourteenth Air Force.
Chennault boasted to Roosevelt that if he could build those front-line bases, if he could get aircraft and did not give Stilwell most of the war supplies, then his air force could sink 1 million tons of Japanese maritime transport supplies, and Roosevelt was very useful. Chennault also said the bases could be used for B–29 bombers to take off and land in order to bomb the Japanese mainland. Stilwell took the opposite view, predicting that the construction of these bases would only attract Japanese bombing. As always, Stilwell was right.
In April 1944, the Japanese sent 15 divisions plus 5 brigades to launch an offensive, and the 300,000 Chinese troops on defensive tasks were on the verge of collapse. A small Force of 500 Japanese troops could crush a Chinese army of thousands of men. Chinese army commanders trucked their families and property to the interior, and Chennault complained that this would not have happened if Stilwell had been able to ship more war supplies to the Chinese army. The reality is that some of the questioned units have received a lot of American equipment, but the commanders have sold it on the black market, and some have been sold to the Japanese. Besude found that in several areas where the chairman of the committee claimed to have organized forces to prepare for a courageous resistance, there were only two poorly equipped regiments of peasants who had been forcibly recruited. Faced with a powerful Japanese offensive, such an army was vulnerable.
Those people walked forward slowly, and in front of these suffering Chinese soldiers was only disaster... They were tired, skinny, old guns, and patched in brown-yellow military uniforms. Two grenades hung from each soldier's belt, and each had a blue sausage-like cloth bag around his neck containing rice, the only battlefield food supply for Chinese soldiers. They wear worn-out straw shoes on their feet, worn-out feet, and a bird's nest-style hat made of leaves on their heads to shield them from sunlight and can also be used as camouflage. Large drops of sweat spilled down from them, and the dust under their feet swept across the country, and the fields were also extremely hot, and the rice fields set off a slight wave of wheat, shining brightly.
The battle ended shortly after it began. "The Chinese soldiers fought almost on flesh and blood," Mr. Beschude wrote, "and they climbed mountains and died in broad daylight, without any support or direction." They are doomed to perish. ”
After the airfield was blown up by the Japanese, Chennault and Chiang Kai-shek stepped up arrangements to make Stilwell a scapegoat. In June 1944, U.S. Vice President Henry Wallace came to Chongqing for a few days, and Stilwell was not in Chongqing, so he could not defend himself, and he was now directing the army in Burma in the long and extremely fierce Battle of Myitkyina. That campaign was the largest and most successful U.S. campaign on the Asian continent during World War II, and the only battle in which U.S. combat forces (Merrill's "marauders") directly participated.
In order to whitewash the peace, the chairman of the committee ordered that all the beggars be arrested and tied together and sent to a place far away from chongqing's urban area. Wallace was received by Song Ziwen and Joseph Elthorpe. Wallace's ears had not yet recovered from the roar of the planes, and they were filled with all kinds of sins about Stilwell.
After several meetings with the chairman, Wallace put pressure on him and successfully persuaded the chairman to allow the Americans to send a team of observers to Yan'an, the headquarters of the Communist Party. However, Chiang Kai-shek also adopted a tit-for-tat strategy. On his way to the airport to see wallace off, Chiang Kai-shek demanded that Albert C. Weidmeier replace Stilwell in the future. Weidmeier was a staff officer under Lord Mountbatten, stationed in Delhi, India, and was easy-going and flexible. The chairman also hoped that Roosevelt would send a new personal representative to replace Clarence Gauss, the trouble-seeking ambassador to China. Arriving in Kunming, the next stop on his trip to China, Wallace sent the following report to the president: "Chiang Kai-shek is at best a man who can only be used in a short period of time, and people do not think that he has the wisdom and political power to govern post-war China." Postwar China's leaders are likely to emerge as the situation evolves, or emerge through revolutionary means. For now, it is likely that it will be the latter way. ”
Ironically, as political pressure against Stilwell grew in Chongqing, the U.S. War Department supported him more and more firmly, urging Roosevelt to promote "Sour Vinegar Joe" to a four-star general, insisting that Chiang Kai-shek put all Chinese troops in China, Burma, and India under Stilwell's command. "We fully understand the Chairman's attitude toward Stilwell," the Joint Chiefs of Staff wrote in a memorandum to the President, "... But the reality is that his actions or views in the face of staunch opposition by the British and Chinese authorities are correct. ”
Therefore, at the urging of senior commanders, Roosevelt informed Chiang Kai-shek that Stilwell would be promoted and pointed out that because "the future of Asia is in danger," Chiang Kai-shek should put all of China's army under Stilwell's command.
Chiang Kai-shek could not categorically reject Roosevelt, so he played Tai Chi with him. He insisted that Roosevelt send a special envoy to "regulate" his relationship with Stilwell so that his military would have time to adapt to the American command lines. The matter was not yet settled, but the Japanese launched a short-term offensive along the Burmese highway. Chiang Kai-shek began to worry about whether the Japanese would march along the Burmese highway to Kunming, so he threatened to withdraw all Chinese troops on the Burmese front to the safety of the Salween River.
Roosevelt immediately sent instructions for Stilwell to send an urgent note to Chiang Kai-shek. Roosevelt warned in his instructions that if the chairman withdrew troops from Burma and did not place the troops under Stilwell's command, he would halt all U.S. aid. Stilwell realized that Roosevelt's arrangement of the note was undoubtedly "lighting a firecracker." Stilwell met with Chiang Kai-shek, "stuffed a large handful of peppers into the 'peanut rice', and then leaned back on the back of the chair and let out a long breath." This harpoon hit the little man's heart and mouth and penetrated his body directly."
Faced with Roosevelt's blunt demands, Chiang Kai-shek was both sad and annoyed. Putting Stilwell in charge of the Chinese military would inevitably raise a litany of problems politically(rather than militarily), and the vast network of corruption on which Chiang Kai-shek depended would be destroyed. But Stilwell was a little too soon to be happy.
When the crucial moment came, it was not Chiang Kai-shek, not Chennault, nor someone from the Song family who defeated Stilwell. Stilwell's failure was due to Washington's reluctance to believe in its observers in China and its tendency to solve China's problems with oklahoma logic. Stilwell was defeated by a man who knew nothing about China—Roosevelt's newly sent "personal representative," Patrick Hurley.
The newcomer Hurley took the wrong first step. As soon as they met, he assured the chairman that the United States would still "support Chiang Kai-shek as always," that is, that is, the chairman would get whatever he wanted. Chiang Kai-shek decided to give it a try to see if Hurley was bragging in front of him. So he set aside President Roosevelt's request, and in a telegram sent on September 24, 1944, he again asked the United States to recall Stilwell. He wrote in the telegram: "The new military command tasks are large, complex, and demanding, and General Stilwell is not suitable for these tasks. Without waiting for Roosevelt to call back, Chiang Kai-shek officially announced at the Central Executive Committee that he would not hand over command to Stilwell, which put President Roosevelt in a dilemma. If you want to force Chiang Kai-shek to obey, you have to do so in front of the entire Kuomintang leadership. In fact, from Chiang Kai-shek's point of view, this is obviously just a small political maneuver, but it gives Stilwell a good opportunity for his political opponents in the United States (such as Harry Hopkins). If the U.S. government wants to take a tough stance toward Chiang Kai-shek, now is the time. But as everyone knows, the United States simply cannot stand up.
Maj. Gen. Patrick Hurley came to China with extraordinary political power. He was a tall, well-off Oklahoma native who served as secretary of the U.S. Army during Hoover's presidency, and Roosevelt liked to leave him with any trouble he had. He used the North American Choctaw a method of shouting in battle to fool everyone, greeting people with "Jack of Syphilis" and "Whore Deng". On one occasion, dissatisfied with a memorandum prepared by an experienced Chinese assistant at the embassy, he waved a loaded revolver at his face. Hurley was like a bull breaking into a porcelain shop, and he sent Roosevelt a text message urging him to do as Chiang Kai-shek had asked. In Hurley's view, if he had to choose between Chiang Kai-shek and Stilwell, his only choice would be Chiang Kai-shek. Roosevelt put behind what General Marshall and others had said to him and decided to bet the United States on Hurley. He ordered the immediate recall of Stilwell.
Stilwell recorded in his diary: "The axe has fallen. ”
As a reward, after Stilwell was recalled, Roosevelt gave the position of Ambassador goss to Hurley. The encouraged Hurley, unaware of the danger, trimmed a gentlemanly beard and prepared to single-handedly solve China's civil war problem overnight. He first went to Yan'an and asked the leaders of the Communist Party under what circumstances they were willing to cooperate with Chiang Kai-shek, which surprised them. Hurley then hurried back to Chongqing with Mao's straightforward solutions, only to find himself dead wrong. The chairman of the committee was unwilling to even consider the conditions proposed by Mao Zedong. Since then, whenever Chiang Kai-shek mentioned Hurley, he called him a "big fool."
Hurley once again hurried back to Yan'an with a new plan, this time trying to persuade Mao Zedong to accept Chiang Kai-shek's terms and submit to His leadership. Upon hearing this, Mao Zedong flatly refused. Since then, whenever Hurley is mentioned, the Communist Party has called him a "mustache."
Harold Isaacs, who runs military coverage for Newsweek, argues that Hurley "fell into the hands of people with mixed political ties." Time Magazine's Annali Yagube, however, used less polite words. Hurley, she notes, "forgets where he is, who he's with, and doesn't even know what he's talking about." ”
The eyeliner installed by the U.S. government in Chongqing is full of old Chinese communicators, several of whom are the children of missionaries in China. Although some of them later worked in the Foreign Affairs Bureau for a long time and received good positions, the more important people in this book, such as Schweiss, Kollibo, Davis, and Van Xuande, had short political careers. They were expelled from politics along with others and persecuted during the McCarthy era for reporting some unpopular news about China. According to those who engaged in political persecution, it was a few of them that made the United States "lose China."
The intelligence sent back by China observers expressed the view that no matter how much Washington wanted Chiang Kai-shek to "rule" China, Chiang Kai-shek was about to hand China into the hands of the Communists. This is news that their top bosses in the State Department are extremely reluctant to hear, because it is diametrically opposed to the myths about China that prevail in American society. Observers in Chongqing have been accused of deviating from their waiting expectations that they support the Communist Party. In effect, they are merely warning the United States Government of the course of a series of events that seem to be about to take place, so that a practical policy can be developed. Washington's response, however, was filled with deep suspicion and hostility, insisting that the American flag be tied tighter to the mast of Chiang Kai-shek's sinking ship.
"China is now a mess." On March 20, 1944, Schweitz wrote in a typical memorandum of understanding:
...... The deplorable situation in the whole of China should be borne by Chiang Kai-shek, and he alone should be responsible... If the U.S. government, which Chiang Kai-shek relies on, knows exactly what it wants from Chiang Kai-shek and unswervingly strives toward this goal, Chiang Kai-shek will adopt a cooperative attitude... That may mean that the United States will be able to play an active role in China's affairs. Otherwise, China, as an ally, will not be of much use to the United States. If we do, we may be able to save China.
Davis, who was sent to assist Stilwell, wrote to Harry Hopkins: "Americans generally mistakenly believe that Chiang Kai-shek can represent China. In China, perhaps only the chairman of the committee holds this kind of thinking. ”
"The Song Family"
[Beauty] Stirling West Grave
Published by CITIC Press in June 2017