893.00/3–2245
Report by the Second Secretary of Embassy in China (Service)77
Summary: A number of recent appointments of reactionary military men who have been associated with anti-democratic or secret police groups seem to point to preparations for civil war and thus cast doubt on the Generalissimo’s professed democratic and peaceful intentions. End of Summary.
It is the continual plea of the Generalissimo and his supporters that he sincerely wishes to do everything possible to bring democratic [Page 301] unity to China and to avoid civil war, and that “his good intentions should be trusted”.
In the political field, these intentions are as yet unimplemented. They remain the promises that have been made many times already.
On a more practical level, an indication of the Generalissimo’s intentions can be found in the nature of a number of recent appointments. These appointments are too similar in character and too numerous to be accepted as coincidental. Regarded in any light, they are ominous.
[Here follows detailed report.]
The trend of these important recent personnel shifts is obviously toward the placing of: (1) strong and completely trusted Central Government men, of proved anti-democratic and anti-Communist records, in all important military commands and particularly in positions facing the occupied area; and (2) the appointment of men associated with reactionary, anti-democratic internal police organizations to take charge of large cities and new territories after their liberation.
Against this tendency must be placed the facts: (1) that the occupied areas are practically synonymous with the territory now dominated by, and in future to be contested with, the Communists; and (2) that all the important cities of occupied China are threatened by adjacent areas of Communist activity.
The chessmen are being moved into position—for a game that looks far different from the peaceful democratic unification of China described by Chiang.
- Received in the Department about April 27.↩