Chinese Maelstrom

Of Americans who as private citizens affiliated with China, none was more enthusiastic than Agnes Smedley, perpetual seeker of the just polity. Having survived childhood hardships, she gravitated to American radicalism, then later to the idea of revolution exemplified by Mao’s Shaanxi outpost, Yan’an. Profoundly nonconformist, this non-doctrinal leftist had persevered in China since 1928. Her future and China’s were never more entwined than after Japan invaded. She stayed on until infirmity obliged her to leave in spring 1941. “I could not imagine spending my life outside of China,” she afterward said. To that avowal, she added as a matter of fact, “I always forgot that I was not a Chinese myself.” Meanwhile, bereft of reliable domestic allies and unable to repel Japan, Chiang Kai-shek sought help where he could. This reposed partly in an unlikely military air war adviser, former US Army officer Claire Lee Chennault.