CHINA: The Open Door

China's Communists conquered as fast as they could march. They met almost no Nationalist opposition. In the south, battle-hardened infantrymen under one-eyed Red General Liu Po-cheng had breached the green heights of the Wu Lin mountains, the last major range blocking the approaches to the Nationalists' capital at Canton. In the dusty reaches of the northwest, twelve armies under Communist General Peng Teh-huai had spilled to within 25 miles of the Kansu provincial capital ot Lanchow (see map).

"The big door to Canton is open," boasted headlines in Shanghai's Communist press. In...

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