STILWELL AND THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN CHINA, 1911-45 by Barbara W. Tuchman. 621 pages. Macmillan. $10.
For as long as anyone can remember, China has puzzled Americans. U.S. feelings have been a mixture of fascination, affectionand disastrous delusion. During World War II the result was complete military failure in China as well as a legacy of bitterness between China and the U.S. So argues Barbara Tuchman. The value of her engrossing popular history is that it provides a kind of psychological purgative.
The American fantasythat the U.S. could be China's protectorbegan about the turn...