I've titled the blog Dragon by the Tail by borrowing the title from a great book about China by John Paton Davies. I have spent a great deal of time in the Truman library archives working through the papers that Davies (who died in 1999) left to the library for researchers. Born to missionary parents, Davies entered the foreign service with the state department and became a China specialist. He was known as one of the famed China Hands of World II era, when he was placed as a political adviser to Gen. Joseph "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell in the China-Burma-India theater. He later served in important positions in the State Department, including on the Policy Planning Staff under George Kennan, during the period when most of the containment strategy for the Cold War was formulated.
With the "loss" of China in 1949, when the Chinese Communists defeated the nationalists, Davies was, however, caught up in turmoil of the times and was one of those targeted by politically-inspired witch-hunts as Republicans sought to brand anyone connected with American policy toward China as a communist-sympathizer. This statement simplifies what was a complex situation but is nonetheless accurate. Eventually, in 1954, John Foster Dulles fired Davies from the State Department despite being found innocent of any disloyal acts since, guilty or not, the continual investigations had undermined Davies's credibility. Others dismissed for similar reasons include, John Service, Owen Lattimore, and John Carter Vincent.
Studying Davies's wartime activities - and the concern he had for the Chinese and his devotion to American interests - sparked a new interest for me in World War II on the Asian mainland and that led me to propose this course through USAC. I expect my work on Davies to produce some kind of publication in the not-too-distant future.
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