Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "750241",
    "label": "Foreign Affairs File, 1940-1953: China: Record of Round-Table Discussion by 25 Far East Experts with the Department of State on \"American Policy Toward China\":  October 6, 7 and 8, 1949",
    "core": "doc",
    "dtoType": "document",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/750241"
}

{
    "id": "750241",
    "sourceUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/750241",
    "contentType": "document",
    "title": "Foreign Affairs File, 1940-1953: China: Record of Round-Table Discussion by 25 Far East Experts with the Department of State on \"American Policy Toward China\":  October 6, 7 and 8, 1949",
    "citationUrl": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/750241",
    "collections": [
        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
        "Subject Files"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750241/750241-01-001.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750241/750241-01-001.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750241/750241-01-001.jpg",
    "imageCount": 228,
    "hasImages": true,
    "source": "import",
    "hasTranscription": false
}

{
    "url": "https://catalog.archives.gov/id/750241",
    "naId": 750241,
    "levelOfDescription": "fileUnit",
    "recordType": "description",
    "ocrSource": "nara-archive"
}

{
    "seq": 218,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602191/750241/750241-01-218.jpg",
    "mediaId": "306855b662454fd8",
    "ocrText": "5\nThe information with regard to fighting was very difficult to evaluate\nbecause the reports were, as a rule, grossly exaggerated by the side which had\nsuffered the reverse or was charged with the renewal of the fighting, and fre-\nquently a light patrol encounter was exaggerated into a large operation. Des-\npite these difficulties, we brought the fighting temporarily to an end.\nThere now followed a serious dispute over the representation of\ndelegates to the Constitutional Convention scheduled for May 5. This provoked\nadded bitterness both in the field and among the workers behind the scenes\npolitically. The Generallissimo then postponed the meeting of the Constitutional\nConvention because he stated he could not find a satisfactory basis for the\nrepresentation of delegates. This was a very serious blow and, from then on,\nmatters proceeded from difficult, to bad, to worse.\nDuring most of the period following January 10, I found the Communist\nrepresentation and most of their forces in the field to be more responsive to\nthe dictates of the Committee of Three than the Nationalists. It seemed to me\nthe Communists felt that they could win their battle on political grounds more\neasily than on tactical fighting grounds because they had a more tightly held\norganization, whereas on the Nationalist side there were many contentious\nelements. The Communists continued on this line quite definitely, in my\nopinion, until early in June, after the postponement of the Constitutional Con-\nvention. The Nationalist commanders all seemed to be determined to pursue\na policy of force."
}