Joseph Stilwell

Joseph Stilwell (March 9th 1883 October -12 1946) was a Général of the armed with the United States known for its services in China, particularly as a chief of staff of Tchang Kaï-chek. He usually spoke Chinese and Japanese and had the reputation to be acariâtre and little diplomat, which was worth the nickname of " to him; Vinegar Joe" (Joe vinegar). Even if it seldom ordered troops, it climbed the levels in the living rooms and the staffs to the row of general with four stars.

Biography

Joseph Stilwell was born in 1883 with Palatka in Florida and left the Military academy West Point in 1904. During the First World War, he was an officer of inform second office attached to IVe Army corps and received the " Distinguished Service Medal ". Between the two Wars, it made two missions in China where it learned Chinese. It became military attach3e near the Embassy of the United States to Nankin of 1935 with 1939, capital of the République of China then in war with Japan.

It tried to convince the " Generalissimo" Tchang Kaï-chek to entrust the military command of its army to an American general. He hated Tchang Kaï-chek which returned well it to him. They managed to work together only thanks to the diplomacy of the wife of Tchang, Soong Mei-ling, of the richissime family of Soong. Among the litigious subjects was the distribution of the American military aid for the fight anti-Japanese woman. Stilwell wanted a distribution equal between the Communists of Mao Zedong and the nationalists of Tchang Kaï-chek, but Tchang believed that the American weapons given to the Communists would be used to fight it, rather than to fight against the Japanese. Moreover, Stilwell wanted actions more aggressive of the forces nationalist, whereas Tchang was reserved for the fight inevitable anticommunist after the Guerre of the Pacific. In this context where the Chinese Civil war was superimposed on the Japanese threat, Tchang regarded the Communists as a threat larger than the Japanese. Stilwell, on the other hand, wished an united front and required of Tchang to leave side its fears while the Communists only fought against the Japanese and were retained to attack the nationalists until the defeat of the enemy. But Tchang Kaï-chek did not want to be let convince and despite everything its efforts, Stilwell especially was the " carry-monnaie" of the American assistance in nationalist China.

In addition to its role of Head of State major de Tchang, Stilwell had an administrative role in the American forces in the theater of operations CBI (China, Burma, India). It often ridiculed the military chain of command while being addressed directly to the operational command, whereas this communication was supposed to pass through Lord Louis Moutbatten, the supreme commander of the forces allied in the South-East Asia. Stilwell, in this storm, had various roles claiming its presence at several places at the same time.

The personality of Stilwell was also for something in its arguments with the Giffard general, who was sometimes his hierarchically superior and sometimes his subordinate. It was the same with Claire Lee Chennault, which was its hierarchical subordinate as a commander of aviation. Their arguments related to the air war, which gave the same result as the terrestrial war, but with the lower costs. In its turn, Chennault was addressed directly to Tchang Kaï-chek and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, which rather granted to him its confidence than in Stilwell.

In October 1944, following the personal conflicts with Tchang Kaï-chek, Stilwell was recalled to the United States by Roosevelt, and its station was removed according to the dismantling of the CBI. At the origin of this decision, in addition to its character acariâtre, it there with the observation which the concentration of the roles caused confusion and conflict.

Stilwell was unanimously hated of its soldiers, in spite of the brilliant retirement of Burma which it ordered. It was reallocated with the command of Xe armed at the end with the Bataille with Okinawa, when its commander was killed with the combat. In 1946, it took the command of the Life armed in charge of defense with the west coast. He died shortly after in San Francisco.

See too

History of the Republic of China | Sino-Japanese War | Claire Lee Chennault | Tchang Kaï-chek

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