On the Front Lines of the Cold War

by Seymour Topping

  A NOTE ON CHINESE LANGUAGE ROMANIZATION

  In the period covered in this memoir, roughly from the end of World War II to about 2005, three different systems of transcription of Chinese characters were used in published works and by foreigners residing in China. The oldest is Wade-Giles, developed in the mid-nineteenth century by a British scholar and a British diplomat, which was used in all books about China in English up until 1979 and which has been employed by the Republic of China for decades. The second is the Chinese Postal Map romanization system for place-names, which came into use in the late Qing dynasty (1644–1911) and was retained after the fall of the dynasty during the republican era on the mainland (1912–49). While based on Wade-Giles for postal purposes, it differs in a number of respects, including slightly different spellings that incorporate local Chinese dialects (e.g., Peking, Nanking) and also popular preexisting European names for places in China (e.g., Canton). The third and current system used on mainland China since the Communist takeover in October 1949 is the Hanyu Pinyin system, which is the official romanization of the People’s Republic of China and, since 1979, the most popular system employed in published works on China, including newspapers.

  In this book, Wade-Giles and/or the Chinese Postal Map romanization systems are used for all references to Chinese terms and place-names prior to October 1949, while references after that date are, with a few exceptions, in Pinyin. Wade-Giles is also used throughout for all references to republican political and military leaders, while in the case of Communist officials (e.g., Mao Zedong) their names, for purposes of clarity, are rendered in Pinyin both before and after 1949. Below in their order of appearance in the text are major place-names and other Chinese terms in both their pre- and post-1949 rendering.

  “Peking” is the name of China’s capital according to the Chinese Postal Map romanization and is used throughout the text for both pre- and post-1949 periods, as are “Peking University” and “Tsinghua University,” the official English renderings of these two institution names.

  The Note on Chinese Language Romanization is used by courtesy of Professor Lawrence Sullivan, Adelphi University.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  This book is based on my personal experiences, research, lectures, and my news dispatches, magazine articles, and relevant correspondence from the years 1946 to 2009. This includes reporting from 1946 to 1947 for the International News Service from China and Japan; the years 1947 to 1959 for the Associated Press from China, Indochina, London, Geneva, and Berlin; and the years 1960 to 1985 for the New York Times from the Soviet Union, Geneva, Hong Kong, Indochina, Indonesia, China, and Mongolia. I am indebted in particular to the AP and the Times for providing me with clipping and carbon files as well as correspondence to supplement my own extensive notes and records, which date back to 1946. In my archival research at the AP, the staff of President Thomas Curley, notably Richard Pyle, Valerie Komor, Charles Zoeller, Susan James, and Sam Markham, provided invaluable guidance. In the Times archives, my valued guides were Frederick Brunello, corporate records manager, and Alan Siegal, an assistant managing editor in the News Department. I am also indebted to William Stingone, curator of manuscripts at the New York Public Library, who made available its collection of Times documents. My appreciation also extends to my daughter Lesley Topping, who assisted me in the research. I have drawn reminiscences, notably on China, Indochina, and the Geneva Conferences, from my historical memoir, Journey between Two Chinas (Harper & Row, 1972). In his recent Memoirs, Huang Hua, the former foreign minister of the People’s Republic of China, described Journey as “among the 25 books which anyone studying the China question in Western countries must read.” Journey between Two Chinas also includes my experiences in reporting the French Indochina War. I have also made use of impressions and interviews obtained during numerous visits to East Asia over the past thirty years extending to 2008, usually in connection with university lecture tours, most frequently at Tsinghua University in Peking, and research for this book.

  The books listed in this bibliography include those cited in my text, others which I have consulted, and a number that I offer simply as useful references for the reader. I have also listed source articles and other materials which I deem of special interest.

  PROLOGUE

  “Leyte: The Return to the Philippines.” In U.S. Army in World War II, HyperWar Foundation, 1980, www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/index.html.

  CHINA

  Barnett, A. Doak. Communist China: The Early Years, 1949–55. New York: F. A. Praeger, 1966.

  Barrett, General David D. Dixie Mission: The United States Army Observer Group in Yenan, 1944. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1970.

  Birns, Jack. Assignment Shanghai: Photographs on the Eve of Revolution. Photographs by Jack Birns. Edited by Carolyn Wakeman and Ken Light. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.

  Chang, Iris. The Rape of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust of World War II. New York: Basic Books, 1997.

  Chassin, Lionel Max. The Conquest of China: A History of the Civil War, 1945–1949. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1965.

  Clubb, O. Edmund. Twentieth Century China. New York: Columbia University Press, 1972.

  ———. Oral History Interview, Truman Library, June 16, 1974.

  Davies, John Paton, Jr. Dragon by the Tail: American, British, Japanese, and Russian Encounters with China and One Another. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1972.

  Donovan, Robert J. Tumultuous Years: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1949–1953. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1984.

  ———. Conflict and Crisis: The Presidency of Harry S. Truman, 1945–1948. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1996.

  Durdin, Tillman, James Reston, and Seymour Topping. Report from Red China. With photographs and additional articles by Audrey Ronning Topping. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1971.

  Fairbank, John King. The United States and China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971.

  ———. Chinabound: A Fifty Year Memoir. New York: HarperCollins, 1982.

  Gao Wenqian. Zhou Enlai: The Last Perfect Revolutionary. Translated by Peter Rand and Lawrence Sullivan. New York: Public Affairs, 2007.

  Griffith, Samuel B., II. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1968.

  Guillermaz, Jacques. A History of the Chinese Communist Party. New York: Random House, 1968.

  Hamilton, John Maxwell. Edgar Snow: A Biography. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1988.

  Hooton, E. R. The Greatest Tumult: The Chinese Civil War, 1936–49. London: Brassey’s, 1991.

  Huang Hua. The Album. Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 2003.

  ———. Memoirs. Beijing: China Language Press, 2008.

  Kahn, E. J. The China Hands: American Foreign Service Officers and What Befell Them. New York: Viking Books, 1975.

  Kissinger, Henry A. Years of Upheaval. Boston: Little Brown & Co., 1982.

  Ledovsky, Andrei. “Marshall’s Mission in the Context of U.S.S.R.-China Relations.” George C. Marshall Foundation, 1998, www.marshallfoundation.org.

  Liu, F. F. Military History of Modern China, 1924–1949. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1956.

  Liu, Peter. Mirror: A Loss of Innocence in Mao’s China. Xlibris.com, 2001.

  MacFarquhar, Roderick, and Michael Schoenhals. Mao’s Last Revolution. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006.

  Mao Zedong. “On Protracted War.” May 1938. In Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung [Zedong], 2:113–94. Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1963.

  ———. “Talk with the American Correspondent Anna Louise Strong.” August 1946. In Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung [Zedong], 4:97–102. Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1963.

  ———. “The Concept of Operations for the Huai-Hai Campaign.” October 11, 1948. In Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung [Zedong], 4:279–282. Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 1963.

  Marks, Col. Donald M. “The Ussuri River Incident as a Factor in Chinese For
eign Policy.” Air University Review 22, no. 5 (July–August 1971): 53–63.

  Medvedev, Roy. Khrushchev. Garden City, NY: Anchor Press, 1983.

  Melby, John F. The Mandate of Heaven. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1968.

  O’Donovan, Patrick. For Fear of Weeping. London: MacGibbon & Kee, 1950.

  Pan, Philip. Out of Mao’s Shadow. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008.

  Pickler, Lt. Col. Gordon K. “The USAAF in China, 1946–47.” Air University Review 24, no. 1 (May–June 1973): 69–74.

  Powers, Thomas. The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA. New York: Knopf, 1979.

  Rittenberg, Sidney, and Amanda Bennett. The Man Who Stayed Behind. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993.

  Roderick, John. Covering China: The Story of an American Reporter from Revolutionary Days to the Deng Era. Chicago: Imprint Publications, 1983.

  Ronning, Chester. A Memoir of China in Revolution. New York: Pantheon, 1974.

  Selden, Mark. The Yenan Way in Revolutionary China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971.

  Snow, Lois Wheeler. Edgar Snow’s China. New York: Random House, 1981.

  Solomon, Richard H. Mao’s Revolution and the Chinese Political Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971.

  Strong, Anna Louise. The Chinese Conquer China. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1949.

  Tai Sung An. The Lin Piao [Biao] Affair. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1974.

  Terrill, Ross. Madame Mao: The White Boned Demon. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999.

  Topping, Audrey. Dawn Wakes in the East. New York: Harper & Row, 1973.

  ———. The Splendors of Tibet. New York: Sino Publishing, 1980.

  Truman, Harry S. Memoirs by Harry S. Truman: 1945, Year of Decisions. Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky, 1955.

  Tuchman, Barbara. Stillwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–45. New York: Macmillan, 1970.

  ———. “If Mao Had Come to Washington: An Essay in Alternatives.” Foreign Affairs, October 1972.

  U.S. Department of State. United States Relations with China, with Special Reference to the Period 1944–1949 (aka White Paper on China). Washington, DC: Department of State, 1949.

  ———. Foreign Relations of the United States. Vols. 1946–49, “The Far East: China.” Washington, DC: Department of State, 1974.

  White, Theodore H. In Search of History. New York: Harper & Row, 1978.

  Zi Zhongyun. No Exit: The Origin and Evolution of U.S. Policy toward China, 1945–1950. Norwalk, CT: EastBridge Books, 2003.

  KOREAN WAR

  Brown, Brig. Gen. John S., ed. “The Korean War, The Chinese Intervention.” Brochure. Washington, DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History, n.d.

  Chen Jian. China’s Road to the Korean War. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994.

  “The Chinese Offensive, 25 November 1950–25 January 1951.” Washington, DC: U.S. Naval Historical Center, August 10, 2000.

  DiNicolo, Gina, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.). “The Chosin Reservoir.” In The Korean War, vol. 56, no. 11. Fifth Anniversary of the Korean War Commemoration Committee, 2000.

  Goncharov, Sergei N., John W. Lewis, and Xue Litai. Uncertain Partners: Stalin, Mao, and the Korean War. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1993.

  Manchester, William. American Caesar: Douglas MacArthur, 1880–1964. New York: Random House, 1978.

  Roe, Maj. Patrick C., U.S. Marine Corps (Ret.). “Destruction of the 31st Infantry: A Tragedy of the Chosin Campaign.” At patroe@rockisland.com, n.d.

  “Statement of Policy by the National Security Council on United States Objectives and Courses of Action with Respect to Southeast Asia.” June 25 1952. In The Pentagon Papers: The Defense Department History of the United States Decision-making on Vietnam, Senator Gravel ed., 1:385–90. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971.

  Stueck, William. Rethinking the Korean War. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002.

  Talbot, Strobe, and Edward Crankshaw. Khrushchev Remembers. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1970.

  Thornton, Richard C. Odd Man Out: Truman, Stalin, Mao, and the Origins of the Korean War. Washington, DC: Brassey’s, 2000.

  Whiting, Allen S. China Crosses the Yalu. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1960.

  INDOCHINA

  Arnett, Peter. Live from the Battlefield. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994.

  Bird, Kai. The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy: Brothers in Arms. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998.

  Birns, Jack. Assignment: Shanghai: Photographs on the Eve of Revolution. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.

  Bodard, Lucien. The Quicksand War: Prelude to Vietnam. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1967.

  Browne, Malcolm. Muddy Boots and Red Socks: A Reporter’s Life. New York: Random House, 1993.

  Burchett, Wilfred G. Vietnam North: A First-Hand Report. New York: International Publishers, 1966.

  ———. My War with the CIA: The Memoirs of Prince Norodom Sihanouk. New York: Pantheon, 1972.

  Duiker, William J. Ho Chi Minh: A Life. New York: Hyperion, 2000.

  Emerson, Gloria. Winners and Losers. New York: Random House, 1977.

  Fall, Barnard B. The Two Viet-Nams: A Political and Military Analysis. New York: Praeger, 1963.

  Halberstam, David. The Best and the Brightest. New York: Random House, 1969.

  Kiernan, Ben. The Pol Pot Regime. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2002.

  Kraslow, David, and Stuart H. Loory. The Secret Search for Peace in Vietnam. New York: Random House, 1968.

  Lamb, David. Vietnam Now. New York: Public Affairs, 2002.

  Langguth, A. J. Our Vietnam: The War, 1954–1975. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000.

  Levant, Victor. Quiet Complicity: Canadian Involvement in the Vietnam War. Toronto: Between The Lines, 1986.

  Marr, David G. Vietnam 1945: The Quest for Power. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.

  McNamara, Robert S. In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. New York: Times Books, 1995.

  McNamara, Robert S., et al. Argument without End: In Search of Answers to the Vietnam Tragedy. New York: Public Affairs, 1999.

  Mydans, Carl. More Than Meets the Eye. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1959.

  Owen, Taylor, and Ben Kiernan. “Bombs over Cambodia: New Light on U.S. Air War.” Third World Traveler, May 12, 2007.

  Patti, Archimedes L. A. Why Viet Nam? Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980.

  Pyle, Richard, and Horst Faas. Lost over Laos: A True Story of Tragedy, Mystery, and Friendship. Boston: Da Capo Press, 2003.

  Qiang Zhai. China and the Vietnam Wars, 1950–1975. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

  Schanberg, Sydney H. The Death and Life of Dith Pran. New York: Penguin, 1980.

  Schulzinger, Robert D. A Time for War: The United States and Vietnam, 1941–1975. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997.

  Shaplen, Robert. The Lost Revolution. New York: Harper & Row, 1966.

  Shawcross, William. Sideshow: Kissinger, Nixon, and the Destruction of Cambodia. New York: Cooper Square Press, 1979.

  Sheehan, Neil. A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam. New York: Random House, 1988.

  Sherry, Norman. The Life of Graham Greene. Vol. 2, 1939–1955. New York: Viking Books, 1995.

  Smith, R. Harris. OSS: The Secret History of America’s First Central Intelligence Agency. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972.

  Sucheng Chan. Hmong Means Free. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994.

  Taylor, Charles. Snow Job: Canada, the United States, and Vietnam (1954 to 1973). Toronto: Anansi, 1974.

  Tonnesson, Stein. The Vietnamese Revolution of 1945: Roosevelt, Ho Chi Minh and de Gaulle in a World at War. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1991.

  Turner, Robert F. Vietnamese Communism: Its Origins and Development. Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Publications, 1975.

  INDONESIA<
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  Brackman, Arnold C. The Communist Collapse in Indonesia. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1969.

  Hughes, John. Indonesian Upheaval. New York: McKay, 1967.

  THE PENTAGON PAPERS

  Abrams, Floyd. Speaking Freely: Trials of the First Amendment. New York: Viking, 2005.

  New York Times Staff. The Pentagon Papers: The Secret History of the Vietnam War. Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1971).

  The Pentagon Papers: The Defense Department History of the United States Decision-making on Vietnam. Vols. 1–4. Senator Gravel ed. Boston: Beacon Press, 1971.

  Prados, John, and Margaret Pratt Porter, eds. Inside the Pentagon Papers. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2004.

  FOREIGN EDITOR

  Bassow, Whitman. The Moscow Correspondents: Reporting on Russia from the Revolution to Glasnost. New York: Paragon House,1989.

  Catledge, Turner. My Life and The Times. New York: Harper & Row, 1971.

  Frankel, Max. High Noon in the Cold War: Kennedy, Khrushchev and the Cuban Missile Crisis. New York: Ballantine Books, 2004.

  Gelb, Arthur. City Room. New York: G. B. Putnam, 2003.

  Reston, James. Deadline: A Memoir. New York: Random House, 1991.

  Risen, James. State of War: The Secret History of the C.I.A. and the Bush Administration. New York: Free Press, 2006.

  Salisbury, Harrison E. Behind the Lines—Hanoi. New York: Harper & Row, 1967.

  ———. Without Fear or Favor: An Uncompromising Look at The New York Times. New York: Times Books, 1980.

  Sanger, David E. The Inheritance: The World Obama Confronts and the Challenges to American Power. New York, Crown, 2009.

  Shepard, Richard. The Paper’s Papers: A Reporter’s Journeys through the Archives of The New York Times. New York: Times Books, 1996.

  Stacks, John F. Scotty, James B. Reston and the Rise and the Fall of American Journalism. Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 2002.