Marshall Mission Files, Lot 54–D270

Minutes of Meeting Between General Marshall and General Chou En-lai, at House 28, Chungking, February 18, 1946, 8 p.m.

Also present: Colonel Caughey
Captain Eng
Mr. Chang

General Marshall explained to General Chou that the reason he wished to speak to him was to outline his ideas with respect to assisting the Communists in giving selected officers and non-commissioned officers [Page 259] basic training prior to integration of the armies. General Marshall stressed that the training would be short and would consist only of basic principles but that was all that could be done in such a short period. General Chou welcomed this offer of assistance and stated that he would take it up with Chairman Mao Tse-tung.

General Chou asked General Marshall what his ideas were with reference to the commander and the staff of the army groups which General Marshall had proposed. General Marshall first stated that the organization of army groups was an expedient in order to overcome the Communist objection to a more hasty integration; that he had not carefully considered all the aspects of the problem but that the staffs of the army groups should consist of approximately half National officers and half Communist officers. General Chou then stated that he was giving his personal support to General Marshall’s proposal for integration in order that China may more quickly get rid of the war lord system and create a unified democratic army. General Chou added that the reason for Communist delay had been due to certain difficulties which they foresaw with reference to the preparation and training of Communist forces for integration.

General Marshall then informed General Chou (confidentially) that his mission probably would terminate in August or September and that in the meantime he proposed to visit the United States for approximately four weeks for the purpose of adjusting loans for China and consummate procedures for the disposal of surplus property.

General Marshall then said he would trust General Chou with one more bit of confidential information; that he believed he could arrange to have General Wedemeyer made Ambassador to China.

General Chou brought up the question of the trip by the Committee of Three and stated that he would like to go to Hankow, Nanking, Canton, Suchow, Peiping, Hsinghsiang, Taiyuan, Yenan, Mukden, and Changchun.

General Marshall stated that he did not want to get involved in a difficult situation by making an untimely visit to Manchuria. He indicated that his presence might precipitate a new crisis. General Chou stated that “we Communists” and later corrected himself to say “we ‘Chinese’ Communists”, are very anxious to have the Manchurian question settled, that the Communists desire to have teams move into Manchuria to settle the question in order to facilitate the taking over of Manchuria by the government. General Chou pointed out that inasmuch as the reorganization of the armies included both Communist and Nationalist troops, he did not believe the Russians would object to the entrance of teams into Manchuria; that he could not understand why the Nationalists did not want to go in.