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The Second Secretary of Embassy in China (Rice) to the Secretary of State 79
[Received November 7.]
Sir: I have the honor to report as follows observations on the reactions to China of American servicemen and the probable future effect of returning servicemen on American public opinion in regard to that country.
During recent weeks a very large proportion of my time has been taken up by work, primarily of a liaison nature, on behalf of members of the American armed forces at Sian. Of the substantial number of servicemen with whom I have come in contact, I have found almost all to be adversely and often bitterly critical of China and the Chinese and somewhat bewildered that what they consider to be the [Page 164] true facts about China are not, or in the past were not, available to the American public.
Typical American officers and men have mentioned to me such things as follow: seeing few planes on Chinese airfields but many in warehouses near Chengtu; buying from the wife of a Chinese official gasoline assumed by the serviceman to have come to China under lendlease; and several instances of catching Chinese in circumstances such as to indicate beyond reasonable doubt that they were engaged in espionage on behalf of the Japanese and turning them over to Chinese officials only to have the latter quickly release the culprits. Such matters, coming to the attention of officers and men already shocked or disgusted by the dirt, disease and squalor of Chinese towns and annoyed by Chinese personal habits (such as those of constantly hawking and spitting) have turned many of them against the Chinese. (It might be added parenthetically that in voicing their reactions many of the servicemen add that they have also lost, as a result of serving in India, the sympathy for the Indians which they had gained from reading in American publications of Indian aspirations.)
A thoughtful, western-educated Chinese recently wrote me as follows: “I suppose you have noticed (you can’t help noticing it) the prevailing bitterness most Americans (especially officers and men) have against China and the Chinese. Such bitterness will not be worked off merely by speechmaking, reception or consolation parties or ceremonial gift-making. It is very dangerous in the post-war Sino-American relations …80 In time of war the emergency calls for sacrifice and willingness to give. A people with well-developed national consciousness in this way is bound to look down on another with not so well developed national consciousness. You remember how the Allied men and officers used to hate the French after the last war?”
Possibly my Chinese friend might have carried the parallel further and surmised that just as some American soldiers stationed in the Rhineland after November 11, 1918 came home more friendly toward the Germans than toward the French, American troops stationed in China who may later garrison postwar Japan may make comparisons in regard to cleanliness and orderliness which may be unfavorable to the Chinese. In any case, I agree with him that the bitterness to which he alludes may adversely affect postwar Sino-American relations. Certainly it will influence American public opinion in the postwar period.
Respectfully yours,