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This timely collection of essays examines Sino-American relations during the Second World War, the Chinese Civil War and the opening of the Cold War. Drawing on new sources uncovered in China, Taiwan, the UK and the US, the authors demonstrate how 'grassroots' engagements - not just elite diplomacy - established the trans-Pacific networks that both shaped the postwar order in Asia, and continue to influence Sino-US relations today. In these crucial years, servicemen, scientists, students, businesspeople, activists, bureaucrats and many others travelled between the US and China. In every chapter, this innovative volume's approach uncovers their stories using both Chinese and English language sources. By examining interactions among various Chinese and American actors in the dynamic wartime environment, Uneasy Allies reveals a new perspective on the foundations of American power, the brittle nature of the Sino-American relationship, and the early formation of the institutions that shaped the Cold War Pacific.
List of contents
1. Introduction: toward a Grassroots History of Sino-US relations Zach Fredman and Judd Kinzley; Part I. An Informal Alliance: 2. Herbert Yardley and the Grassroots origins of Sino-American wartime intelligence cooperation Chang Jui-te; 3. Allied Military competition in South China and the rise of American power Kwong Chi Man; 4. Gong Peng and Sino-American public diplomacy in wartime Chongqing Jack Neubauer; Part II. Entanglements of American Empire: 5. Pan American airlines and the birth of Chinese air power Mary Augusta Brazelton; 6. The three Gorges Dam and Sino-American hydraulic planning Covell Meyskens; Part III. American Power and the New World Order: 7. American peace movements and the legacies of transpacific wartime activism Ke Ren; 8. The China institute in America and the Politics of China's cultural diplomacy Zheng Yanqiu; 9. Sino-American wartime material exchange and the economic foundations of the cold war order Judd Kinzley; Part IV. The New Imperialism: 10. Haydon Boatner and Sino-American military cooperation David Cheng Chang; 11. Dealing with the dead in the China-Burma-India theater Linh Vu; 12. Qingdao and the politics of occupation in postwar China Zhiguo Yang; 13. The debate over 'Jeep Girls' in postwar China Chunmei Du; 14. Smuggling, military jurisdiction and the remaking of US Empire in postwar China Zach Fredman; 15. Conclusion: legacies and lessons of wartime Sino-American relations, 1937–1939 Zach Fredman.
About the author
Zach Fredman is a historian of the United States and modern China. He is author of The Tormented Alliance (2022) and winner of the Edward M. Coffman First Book Manuscript Prize.Judd C. Kinzley is a historian of modern Chinese history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author of Natural Resources and the New Frontier.
Summary
Drawing on new sources uncovered in China, Taiwan, the UK, and the US, the chapters in this volume reveal how grassroots engagements between Americans and Chinese during World War II shaped the development of the postwar order in Asia and continue to influence Sino-US relations today.
Foreword
This collection examines grassroots Sino-American relations from 1937 to 1949 and their influence on the postwar order in Asia.
