No ‘Mao Moment’

There’s a longstanding myth among leftist Cold War revisionists that America missed a big chance in July 1944, when eight American diplomats, soldiers, and OSS agents — the “Dixie Mission” — landed in Yenan, China, to open talks with Mao Tse-tung about supplying his Communist guerrillas with arms and supplies for the fight against Japan, and found themselves welcomed with open arms.

For a brief shining moment — so goes the myth — the United States had an opportunity to forge an alliance with the future leader of the People’s Republic of China, and to shake off our misbegotten support for his rival, Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek. Instead, Chiang’s pals in the so-called China Lobby foiled the outreach to Mao, whom they portrayed as an unabashed Red. Crestfallen and disappointed by our betrayal, Mao then jumped headlong into the Soviet Union’s camp instead, just in time for victory in the struggle for China in 1949.