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"You came back with the view that the only hope of China, long-run view of it, was to bring about the integration of the Communists with the Nationalists?" asked Georgia's Walter George.
MARSHALL: "I was hard put to find a longview conclusion in the matter because of the failing structure of the Kuomintang and the determination, organization and discipline of the Communist group, and their undoubted advice, and possible support that would occur later from the Soviet government."
Marxists or Reformers. Did he ever think the Chinese Communists were mere agrarian reformers?
MARSHALL: "There was no doubt [in my mind] that the leadership of this group were Marxist Communists and so stated in my presence and insisted, in my presence, that they were. And when I visited Yenan . . . over the proscenium arch [of the meeting hall] was a large picture of Lenin and a large picture of Stalin . . ."
On his return home and as Secretary of State, said Marshall, "I specifically was endeavoring to see what support could be given the Generalissimo . . . The situation was such that we would literally have to take over control of the country in order to insure that the armies functioned with efficiency ... At that time, our own military position was extraordinarily weak . . . We had one and a third divisions in the entire United States. As I recall General Wedemeyer's estimates, about 10,000 officers and others would be necessary to oversee and direct those various operations. Therefore, I was not in agreement with undertaking that, nor were, as I think at that time ... the Chiefs of Staff . . ."
LONG: "Do you believe . . . that substantial additional military aid from this nation at that time would have changed the result?"
MARSHALL: "I do not think so ... I think the presence of American military advisers with the troops would have been helpful, but what was basically lacking was the support of the army by the people, meaning the men in the army themselves."
What did he think of Chiang Kaishek?
MARSHALL : "... A very fine character, and I was really fond of him. The question of his handling of the situation . . . was another matter."