All Yenan flocked to the airfield to see nervous Mao Tse-tung take off for his unity conference with Chiang Kaishek. U.S. Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley had flown up from Chungking the night before (with two cases of Scotch) to escort the Communist leader. Mao hugged his little daughter, kissed his young wife goodbye with the quiet desperation of a man going to be executed. Then he climbed aboard for the first plane ride of his 52 years, his first meeting with the Generalissimo in two decades of civil strife.
Chiang Kai-shek was not...
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