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Text: Qingruo
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introduction
When two tigers fight, one will be defeated, and the strong will be respected, and the loser will be defeated. With the development of the "Three Great Battles", the People's Liberation Army captured the Nationalist Government in Nanjing, and the Chiang Kai-shek clique was defeated, and finally had to retreat to Taiwan.
In this game, Chiang Kai-shek lost completely. When talking about the reasons for the failure, Chiang Kai-shek gave three answers in his diary in his later years.
1. "The Most Iron Ally" Becomes "The Greatest Friend or Foe"
In Chiang Kai-shek's diary, there is such a title: "Ma Xia'er", which is Chiang Kai-shek's unique name for Marshall, a well-known American political party figure.
From here, it is not difficult to see Chiang Kai-shek's dissatisfaction and resentment towards Marshall when he put pen to paper. Later, when he heard the news of Marshall's death, Chiang Kai-shek thought that this was Marshall's retribution, and he had a sense of pleasure of "revenge".
As we all know, during World War II, the United States was a strong support for the Kuomintang government, and even openly recognized the Chiang Kai-shek government as the only official government, which can be described as Chiang Kai-shek's "hardcore ally". So why did Chiang Kai-shek hate Marshall from the US government so much?
(Marshall)
In fact, after the end of World War II, the KMT's military strength on paper was stronger than that of the Chinese Communist Party. Regardless of the number of military personnel or military weapons and equipment, the national army has incomparable advantages. Chiang Kai-shek also made such a bold statement: "If the cooperation is good, use it flexibly...... We will definitely be able to fight a quick battle and eliminate the traitors (referring to the CCP)." The words "quick victory" and "traitors" show that Chiang Kai-shek was so disdainful of the Chinese Communists that "suppressing the Communists" was not even a process that required long-term combat.
However, after World War II, the United States played the role of a "good gentleman," and the United States sent Marshall to hold talks with Chiang Kai-shek on many occasions, hoping that he would shake hands with the Chinese Communists and make peace, but at this time, where could Chiang Kai-shek listen to him? He was arrogant and bent on starting a civil war and claiming the throne alone.
Such "pride" is confident, but it is also the fatal reason for his failure.
(During the War of Liberation)
After many fruitless consultations, the United States has regarded Chiang Kai-shek as an uncontrollable "thorn in the head," and its distrust of Chiang Kai-shek has become more and more deep.
The year 1947 was a major turning point.
As the U.S. ambassador to China, Weidemeyer wrote in his debriefing to then President Harry Truman: "Warn that the Kuomintang is already militarily inferior, and the Chinese Communists are likely to unify China ......."
Such remarks were not groundless, because the Kuomintang was losing ground in the fierce struggle against the Communist Party and had lost its original initiative and advantage. In addition, the United States at that time urgently needed to invest more time and energy in the "struggle for hegemony" and "European reconstruction" with the Soviet Union, and reduced a lot of support for the Chiang Kai-shek government.
In 1948, the rift between the two sides deepened as Chiang Kai-shek openly voted for Truman's political opponents in the U.S. presidential election.
In 1949, when the Kuomintang and the Communist Party were in dire straits, Marshall visited China again. He tried his best to dissuade Chiang Kai-shek from abandoning the military confrontation, but to no avail. In the latter part of this year, the Kuomintang convened a constituent assembly, which aroused the extreme dissatisfaction of our party. Premier Zhou approached Marshall in the hope that he could help, and Marshall agreed. In this way, Chiang Kai-shek's bitterness against Marshall was deepened, and the relationship between the two reached an impasse.
Marshall, knowing that he was powerless to change the trend of the Chinese civil war, immediately asked Truman to withdraw the American troops stationed in China and stop mediating with China.
So in Chiang Kai-shek's diary, Marshall became the "scapegoat" for the defeat of the Kuomintang.
(Zhou Enlai)
Second, the disintegration within the Kuomintang
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the major factions of the Kuomintang also included Li Zongren and Yan Xishan, and the small factions also included Ma Hongkui, Feng Zhi'an, Liu Ruming, etc., and even the Central Army of the Nanjing Nationalist Government under the command of Chiang Kai-shek was divided into descendant and collateral factions. The intricate partisan struggles also caused contradictions within the Kuomintang.
Among them, Bai Chongxi and Li Zongren, the representatives of the Gui faction, were not easy to deal with, which brought great trouble to Chiang Kai-shek.
Li Zongren must be familiar to everyone, in the War of Resistance Against Japan, it was Li Zongren, who served as the commander of the Fifth Theater of the Kuomintang government army, who led his army to win the Battle of Taierzhuang, which was a great victory of the Kuomintang during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.
(Li Zongren)
It can be seen from this that Li Zongren is also an officer with very strong leadership ability. It is precisely because of this that Li Zongren has very friendly relations with the US side.
Before the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the relationship between the Central Army and the warlords of Gui Xu and Gui was already at the point of incompatibility.
In 1946, in order to strengthen the rule within the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-shek announced the so-called internal affairs of the party, hoping to take this opportunity to eradicate the Gui warlords, but at that time the Gui warlords had already grown, so this move did not have any serious impact on the Gui warlords.
(The Big Three of the New Gui Department)
As the war progressed, the Kuomintang was defeated again in the Huaihai Battle in 1958, and for a while, there was a constant controversy about Chiang Kai-shek's ability, and Li Zongren took this opportunity to realize his wish to "force Chiang to step down".
It is not unreasonable that the "Li Zongren" in Chiang Kai-shek's diary has become a negative character.
3. Stalin tore off the mask of camouflage
Speaking of Chiang Kai-shek and Stalin, many people may wonder, what kind of connection can the two of them have?
(Stalin)
In fact, Chiang Kai-shek during the Northern Expedition was also part of the pro-Soviet forces, and he was also aided by Stalin at that time.
However, the good times were short-lived.
The core of friendship between the two countries is always interests. At the Yalta Conference after World War II, the Soviet Union weighed the international situation at that time and its own national interests, and proposed the independence of Outer Mongolia, which seriously damaged the interests of the Chiang Kai-shek clique and also damaged China's sovereignty. Chiang Kai-shek was indignant but helpless. It is only possible to sign the agreement, but the seeds of hatred have long sprouted in the heart.
The Soviet Union was a socialist country, and the ultimate ideal of the Communist Party of China was to establish a socialist country and realize proletarianism.
(People's Liberation Army life photo)
Although the Soviet Union at that time still recognized Chiang Kai-shek's Nanjing Nationalist Government as the sole legitimate government, it did not stop its ties with the Chinese Communist Party. During the War of Liberation, the Soviet Union had already seen that the defeat of the Chiang Kai-shek clique was decided, so it quickly cut ties with the Chiang Kai-shek clique, fully supported the Communist Party of China, and provided ideological and military assistance during the war.
Huge ambitions are intertwined with tragic realities, and this diary fully reveals to us a three-dimensional Chiang Kai-shek, who is not only a so-called villain in our eyes, but a vivid "person". The path he chose, the class he represented, and the prospects he aspired to were all doomed to him not to win this game.
But when he thinks back on this kind, will he have the melancholy and relief of "this situation can be recalled, but it was already sad at the time"?
Refer to the article
Chiang Kai-shek's diary: hated Marshall and deliberately wrote "Ma Xia'er". [OL].2010.12.01.
Historian: Chiang Kai-shek did not hate Mao Zedong, but hated the United States. [OL].2012.07.06.