STILWELL AND THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE IN CHINA : 1911-45

New York, NY: Macmillan, 1971. BOMC First Edition, 2nd Printing, 1971 . Hardcover. Near Fine/Good. Text/BRAND NEW & Bright. Black linen boards/NF. DJ/Good; strong & sound w/nips, chips, faint creasings & closed tears to edges. Map of China to endpapers. Illustrated with archival photos. Historian Barbara Wertheim Tuchman (1912 - 1989), twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize; first for The Guns of August (1962), and second, for this biography of Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell (1983 -1946). Stilwell was military attache to China and US chief of staff to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in 1942 - 44; time when China faced Japanese invasion from without, and adept guerilla Communist insurgents (Mao Tse-tung) from within. Highly "American", hard-driving, caustic Stilwell was known as "Vinegar Joe"; his disparging nickname for Chiang was "Peanuts". In military strategy, Stilwell famously favored ground troops over air power ... putting him at odds with subordinate, Claire Chennault, of the Flying Tigers fame, who had the ear of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek. Of relevance, George Marshall acknowledged he had assigned Stilwell "one of the most difficult" tasks of any theater commander". An extraordinary moment in history when principal roles are played out by several colorful, and "larger-than-normal-life" protangonists, and, narrated by a superb historian.