This is a ground-breaking new interpretation of the collapse of Nationalist China, an event which fundamentally changed the course of twentieth-century history. Using newly available archival sources, Parks Coble reveals why, despite the financial backing of the US, Chiang Kai-shek's government lost the civil war against the communists in 1949.
When Japan invaded China in 1937, Chinese journalists greeted the news with euphoria, convinced their countrymen, led by Chiang Kai-shek, would triumph. Parks Coble shows that correspondents underplayed China's defeats for fear of undercutting morale and then saw their writings disappear and themselves denounced after the Communists came to power.