| | + | General [[George C. Marshall]] was sent by [[President Truman]] as his personal representative to China, arriving on December 20, 1945. His specific instructions from Secretary of State [[James Byrnes]] were to insist on a coalition government of "unity" as a condition for continued aid to the Nationalists.<ref>''George C. Marshall, Statesman, 1945-1959'', Forrest C. Pogue, New York, 1987, pg. 61.</ref> [[CCP]] leader [[Mao Zedong]] already said publicly in April 1945 that a coalition government with the Chinese Nationalists would result in the defeat of "reactionary American imperialism."<ref>"On Coalition Government," address to the April 1945 Seventh National Convention of the Chinese Communist Party, quoted in Anthony Kubek, ''How the Far East Was Lost'', Chicago 1963, pg. 238.</ref> |
| | + | Marshall held several meetings with [[Chiang Kai-shek]] or his delegates and with Mao's representative, [[Zhou Enlai]], and twice arranged ceasefires, in January and June of 1946. When the ceasefires was ordered the Communists held 57 counties. A year later they had 310—a violation of the truce. The Bolton Congressional report compiled a catalogue of the bridges, railway stations and other installations destroyed by the Communists during ththe ceasefire.<ref>Bolton Report, House Committee on Foreign Affairs (Sub-Committee No. 5) on Communism in China, 1948.</ref><ref>''History of the Chinese Communist Party'', Jacques Guillermaz, London, 1972, pg. 445.</ref><ref>''China: A Political History, 1917-1980'', Richard C. Thornton, Boulder, CO, 1982, pg. 192.</ref> Marshall however imposed an embargo on the [[Chinese Nationalist government]]. All aid of all sorts to the Kuomintang was discontinued until the summer of 1947. |