▲ In December 1945, Marshall came to China to mediate between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party.
From the surrender of Japan in August 1945 to the end of the year, the local offensive of the Kuomintang army to the Liberated Areas was one by one unsuccessful. Over the past four months, Chiang Kai-shek has suffered consecutive military defeats, indicating that Chiang Kai-shek is not fully prepared for a full-scale civil war. Although the United States helped Chiang Kai-shek transport two armies to Qinhuangdao, two armies to Beiping and Tianjin, and two armies to Shandong, most of his troops were still in the southwest, and the strength of the troops in north China was still insufficient. In addition, the voices of the people of the whole country against the civil war are getting louder and louder. This made it impossible for Chiang Kai-shek to continue fighting militarily, and he once again sang the tune of "peace talks."
The victory of our army in defensive counterattack operations for several months has also deeply disturbed the US government on the other side of the ocean. U.S. President Harry S. Truman, seeing that Chiang Kai-shek was not ready to start a full-scale civil war, could no longer stand idly by in order to secure the position of the Nationalist government. Therefore, he personally went out on his horse, put on a "neutral" face, and cared about China's "peace." On 15 December 1945, Truman issued a "Statement on China Policy," stating that "the Nationalist Government, the Communist Party of China and other armed forces with different opinions in China shall immediately negotiate a cessation of hostilities," "convene a National Assembly of representatives of the main political parties throughout the country to seek an early settlement of the current civil strife," and falsely warned the Kuomintang government that if the Kuomintang continued its military conflict, all military and economic assistance would cease.
Shortly before President Truman issued the "Statement on China Policy," Truman announced that he would be transferred back to Hurley, the US ambassador to China, and send Marshall to China as the president's special envoy.
Marshall was born in Pennsylvania in 1880. He was formerly chief of staff of the U.S. Army. Although he was not a China pass, he served in the 13rd Regiment of American Infantry in Tianjin from 1923 to 1926 and still had some understanding of China. On August 20, 1945, the Five-Star American Admiral was sitting at his desk in the Pentagon reading an urgent message from the Far East. He then wrote a letter to Truman asking to resign as chief of staff. The letter reads:
Now that the war is over, the army is actively demobilized, major military decisions on arms production reductions have been made, and post-war military planning has entered a fairly in-depth phase, I feel that I can comfortably ask to resign as chief of staff.
I served in the War Department for more than seven years, including six years as chief of staff, and I know the hardships and burdens of the task, and it would be a blessing to be relieved. If I am allowed to nominate a successor, I recommend General Eisenhower, who is best suited for the post of Chief of Staff in the Special Period.
After Marshall resigned as chief of staff of the U.S. Army, Truman sent him to China and reminded him that the situation in the Far East was out of control, the flames of civil war were spreading throughout China, and only by resolutely intervening could the United States turn the tide and avoid a terrible tragedy.
For Marshall to come to China at this time, Chiang Kai-shek was very happy and was busy welcoming Marshall's arrival.
On February 19, as the weather in Shanghai was humid, the rain was overcast and the cold current from the north was blowing, and a large U.S. Air Force transport plane drilled out of thick clouds, landed on the tarmac, and stepped off the plane from the Marshall.
Marshall stayed in Shanghai for only one day, and on December 21, he hurried to Nanjing. As the head of state of a country, Chiang Kai-shek did not need to make a special trip to Nanjing to greet him. However, in order to curry favor with the United States, Chiang Kai-shek did not hesitate to come from Chongqing to Nanjing to wait, and had a brief meeting with Marshall. Chiang Kai-shek's wife, Soong Mei-ling, was also very excited, saying that General Marshall's authorization from President Truman was enough to give him hope of reaching a speedy solution to the stalemated China problem, so that there was great hope for the elimination of the Chinese Communist Party.
On February 22, Marshall flew to Chongqing. The next day, CPC deputies Zhou Enlai, Ye Jianying, and Dong Biwu went to Marshall's residence to meet with him.
On 1 February 27, peace talks between the Kuomintang and the Communists, which had been interrupted for more than a month, resumed again under Marshall's auspices. In addition to Zhou Enlai and Wang Ruofei, the chinese communists participating in the negotiations added Ye Jianying. The representatives of the Kuomintang side are still Zhang Qun, Wang Shijie, and Shao Lizi. Chiang Kai-shek had urgently telegraphed Zhang Zhizhong to return to participate in the negotiations, but he was still in Xinjiang at the time and could not arrive in time.
In the first consultation on behalf of the Chinese Communists, Zhou Enlai put forward a three-point proposal for an unconditional truce on behalf of the Chinese Communists: First, the two sides ordered their subordinate units to temporarily station themselves in their respective places throughout the country to stop all military conflicts; second, all problems to avoid civil war should be resolved through peaceful consultation after the cessation of military conflicts; third, under the guidance of the Political Consultative Conference, civil war inspection delegations from all walks of life should be organized to go to areas where civil war has occurred in the whole country to investigate and ensure the implementation of the first two measures.
The KmT's initial response to the CCP's proposal was to ignore it and adopt a stubborn and confrontational attitude. This made it impossible for the negotiations to proceed. On the 30th, Marshall met with Kuomintang representatives and asked them to abandon their "rather uncompromising position."
Because of Marshall's pressure, the Kuomintang agreed to organize a three-member group, with a representative from both the Kuomintang and the Communist Party and the United States each sending a representative to discuss the settlement of issues related to the armistice. 1 On February 31, the Kuomintang side issued a written response to three more suggestions put forward by the CCP. Unlike the Chinese Communists, the Kuomintang reply only generally stated that all military conflicts could be stopped, but avoided talking about the fact that the armies of both sides should be stationed in their respective places, and proposed to "restore transportation" and put forward the armistice together, which was actually a prerequisite for the resumption of transportation as a precondition for the armistice, so as to ensure that the Kuomintang government could continue to transport troops after the armistice.
It can be seen that the Chinese Communists demanded an unconditional truce, while the Kuomintang insisted on a conditional truce, which became the main point of disagreement in the armistice negotiations.
Fast forward to January 3, 1946, and Marshall sent a memorandum to Mao zedong and Chiang Kai-shek with his own proposal. Its main contents are: the immediate cessation of all combat operations; the cessation of all military movements, except for the movement of the Kuomintang troops into and within the territory of the northeast in order to receive sovereignty; the cessation of all acts of sabotage of communications; and the cessation of all troops in their present positions.
This was Marshall's apparent favoritism in favor of the Kuomintang.
On the same day that Marshall issued the memorandum, the Chinese delegation replied to the Kuomintang agreeing to set up a three-member group for negotiations. On January 5, the representatives of the two sides continued to negotiate and reached an agreement on the three-person group and the main issues of achieving the armistice, and decided that zhou Enlai, a representative of the Communist Party of China, Zhang Qun, a representative of the Kuomintang, and Marshall, special envoy of the United States of America, would continue to consult on the specific details of the implementation of the armistice.
On January 7, the trio held their first meeting at Marshall's Chongqing mansion. At the meeting, Zhang Qun insisted on making an exception to the movement of kuomintang troops in the northeast and wrote it into the armistice order. He also demanded that the Kuomintang troops be allowed to take over the important cities of Chifeng and Duolun in Rehe and Chahar provinces.
The Chinese Communist Party, of course, disagrees. On January 9, Mao Zedong in Yan'an sent a telegram to the Chinese Communist delegation: We must resolutely reject Chiang Kai-shek's request to occupy Chifeng and Duolun, and at the same time declare to Marshall that since the Kuomintang troops are still attacking Rehe and Chahar and the civil war has not yet stopped, the US military should also stop transporting Kuomintang troops to North China and Northeast China, otherwise, in the event of a greater military conflict, the Chinese Communists will not be responsible.
On the same day, Zhou Enlai relayed this position of the CCP to Marshall.
After more than ten days of repeated consultations, on January 10, the Nationalists and Communists reached an agreement on armistice negotiations. At 3 p.m., Zhang Qun and Zhou Enlai signed the "Concerted Ceremony on Stopping The Civil Military Conflict" on behalf of the Kuomintang and the Communists, and Marshall, as the mediator, also signed. The agreement stipulates that from midnight on January 1 3, "all combat operations shall cease immediately"
On the day of the signing of the Armistice Agreement, Mao Zedong issued an armistice notice in accordance with the agreement in the name of the Chairman of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. On January 12, the day before the armistice order came into force, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China issued another circular on the implementation of the armistice order. During the armistice negotiations between the Kuomintang and the Communists, the Two Sides also signed the "Resolution on the Establishment of the Executive Department of the Military Mediation Office," which stipulates that the Executive Department of the Military Mediation Office (hereinafter referred to as the Military Investigation Department) shall have three members, one of whom shall represent the National Government of the Republic of China, one shall represent the Communist Party of China, and one shall represent the United States Government. Although "the United States participated in the Military Mediation Office Executive Department only to assist the Chinese members in implementing the cease-and-desist order," the U.S. representative was invited to serve as chairman. Each of the three members has the right of veto, and all matters must be unanimously approved by all three members. The official directive, with the unanimous consent of the three members, shall be promulgated in the name of the Chairman of the National Government of the Republic of China.
In order to implement the agreement to establish a military investigation department, the Chinese Communist Party, the Kuomintang government, and the United States all sent their own representatives. Ye Jianying was dispatched by the CPC Central Committee to serve as a representative of the CPC in the Military Investigation Department, Zheng Jiemin as a representative of the Kuomintang government, and Robertson, chargé d'affaires of the US Embassy in China.
In the struggle of more than half a year of talks. The Military Investigation Department has successively dispatched 29 execution teams and 7 transportation teams to various localities.
▲ On January 10, 1946, Zhou Enlai and Zhang Qun signed the "Order and Statement on Stopping The Civil Conflict", and the right was Marshall, the representative of the United States in the Military Investigation Office.
In late February 1946, a three-member military team of Marshall, Zhou Enlai, and Zhang Zhizhong decided to take a plane to the whole country, mainly in north and central China.
The first stop is to Beiping.
At about 2 p.m. on the last day of February, at the airport in the western suburbs of Beiping, a large group of greeters was already waiting for the arrival of the three-person group. Among the crowd were Li Zongren, director of the Kuomintang's North Parallel Battalion, Xiong Shihui, director of the Northeast Parallel Battalion, and three members of the Beiping Military Adjustment Department.
A short time later, a silver American C-54 giant plane appeared over the airport and landed in front of the welcoming crowd.
After getting off the plane and taking a short rest, the three-member group began to listen to the work reports of the three members of the Beiping Military Mobilization Department.
On March 1, accompanied by three members of the Military Investigation Department, the three-member military group left Beijing and flew to Zhangjiakou, Jining, and other places.
When they arrived at Zhangjiakou, Nie Rongzhen set up a banquet to warmly entertain everyone. The dishes eaten are all Chinese, but there are also knives and forks butter and fruit sauce. The next day, Robertson, a member of the U.S. side of the Military Investigation Department, said the meal was the best he had ever had in the world.
Excerpt from "The Decisive Battle of the North China Liberation War 1945-1949", by Yuan Dejin, published by Shanghai People's Publishing House, source: Wenhui Network