Marshall Mission Files, Lot 54–D270: Telegram
Lieutenant General Alvan C. Gillem, Jr., to Colonel J. Hart Caughey, at Nanking
49. Subject is status of Executive Headquarters investigation of the Anping incident as stated in 1847.4 U.S. Branch participation in the investigation of the Anping incident has been terminated. The U. S. Commissioner accepted a separate U. S. member report dated 8 October 19465 and all copies of this report have been retained in U. S. hands. This action has been taken since the effect of the conclusions arrived at by the U. S. member, which proved beyond doubt [Page 599] that the Communist Party forces did methodically plan and execute an ambush of an U. S. Marine convoy and did further prove that the Marine convoy was completely unaware of this premeditated danger, if disseminated, would be most undesirable from our standpoint at this critical period. The Communist Party representatives throughout the investigation displayed extremely reluctant attitude in all attempts to establish facts directly related to the incident. From this it is concluded that the Communist Party realized their guilt in this matter and were therefore not interested in ascertaining the true facts. Since the untenable position as outlined above of the Communist Party in this incident is so conclusively proven in the U. S. member’s report, publication could seriously jeopardize our relations with the Communist Party. Further, the matter is now considered dormant and no distribution is being made at this time. Therefore, it is planned for the time being to retain the report in the U. S. Branch files for “reference” only. Any subsequent action taken by the U. S. Branch will be dependent upon trend of future negotiations and/or Communist Party propaganda. One copy of above U. S. member report is being dispatched to you via courier Monday 9 December.