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I dislike even more to mention the third main source of the propaganda against the Government of China. A lot of it is approved, even inspired, by persons in our own War and State Departments. There are several reasons for this sorry spectacle. There has been a fundamental difference of opinion from the beginning between Chiang Kai-shek and some of our leaders as to the best way to fight the war. Chiang Kai-shek maintained we could not beat the Japanese from the air or from the sea; they must be beaten on the mainland of Asia.
Chiang said when the war began that there would be three stages: first, the stage of strategic retreat, trading space for time; second, the stage of stalemate in which China has been for almost three years; and third, the stage of counteroffensive to drive the Japanese out of China. He will not start the third until he is ready, any more than we would.
Three-Group Struggle. All these complicated factors have led to a great struggle in China between three main groups, although not as acute now perhaps as it was last fall—I think we may be around the corner. First is a group of Chinese who are completely disillusioned regarding the white man. Some of them are in the Japanese puppet governments. They do not consider themselves traitors. They consider themselves the hard-headed patriots and Chiang a misguided fool for trusting the West.
There is a second group, led by the Chinese Communists. Their argument goes like this: "Why not build up trade and markets for Russia, rather than for America and England? In cooperation with Russia, we Chinese can build in Central Asia the greatest industrial bloc in the world, in the midst of the greatest land and population bloc on the earth." That, too, is a rather potent argument, is it not? Would it be in America's interest? And yet some sincere but mistaken Americans vigorously support the Chinese Communist program.
And then there is the third group, the Central Government of China led by Chiang Kai-shek and men who are mostly Western-trained students, from America and England. There are unquestionably some who have been in power too long, are reactionary, even corrupt. But on the whole they have been loyal to the ideas and ideals they learned here and have tried their best under enormous difficulties to make China a sister republic in Asia.
What can we do to help? First, we have got to cut out this irresponsible, unbalanced criticism of the Chinese for things that do not exist or are not their fault or would be present in any country after comparable disasters. We have got to stop trying to force the Chinese to do what we think is best. They are an eminently reasonable people, but they cannot be browbeaten or coerced.
Second, we have got to make constructive the criticisms that are justified, of things that are bad, sometimes very bad indeed. I want to pay tribute to General [Patrick] Hurley* and Donald Nelson† in this respect. They got off to a wonderful start because they have been sympathetic and constructive as well as critical. Their approach was not, "Now, China, you are our problem. What shall we do with you?" But rather, "China, you have some problems. How can we help you with the problems? How can we help each other most?" There is a world of difference.
Third, we