The Liberation War was the most important war after the Anti-Japanese War. It was a decisive battle related to the future and destiny of China. In just three years, the People's Liberation Army launched three major battles, basically wiping out the main force of the Kuomintang army, and finally the Battle of Crossing the River The victory of announced the demise of the Kuomintang government, and the Kuomintang government, which relied on the United States, retreated from Taiwan Province in just a few years.
Liberation War
You must know that after the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the Kuomintang government was very high-spirited and tried to defeat the People's Liberation Army in a short time. However, they did not expect that it would be defeated so completely. Many people asked, why did the United States behind it not directly participate? In fact, although the United States was not directly involved, it was causing trouble behind the scenes. It directly interfered in the liberation war three times. It can be said that it was surrounded by dangers.
The crisis of joining the war for the first time
In the late period of the Anti-Japanese War, the decline of the Axis Powers has appeared. Facing the powerful offensive of the Allies, the destruction of the Axis Powers is only a matter of time, and the division of forces after the collapse of the Axis Powers has long been Before the case of the Big Three, the United States and the Soviet Union had not yet reached the point of falling out at this time. Not only did they still have a common enemy, but they already had little thoughts about the post-war problems.
From 1943 to 1945, the U.S. Ambassador to China, Goss and others had already written hundreds of reports and submitted them to Washington. The staff officers of the Stilwell Command also provided a large number of reports, all of which were about the post-war war. China's direction.
Stilwell
The central idea of these reports is that the Kuomintang government is too decadent and has a weak political foundation to effectively rule China after the war. Secondly, the military led by the CCP is very powerful. If the two sides fight, the Kuomintang government will be completely defeated.
Therefore, the purpose of their report is to warn Washington not to fight with the CCP. After all, Anti-Japanese War The CCP’s performance is very powerful, unless it is the second Japan, but everyone has seen the situation in Japan, but it does not support the CCP. , after all, the ideology of is different from that of . The reason why it is written this way is that traditional American pragmatism was still the trend of thought at that time, and thus we are ready to start a series of policies that are beneficial to American interests.
pragmatic policy
In these reports, they suggested that the best way for China at this time is to form a coalition government to achieve bourgeois democratization and absorb other democratic parties including the CCP. Of course, The political leadership is still dominated by the Kuomintang government. As for the effect, it is not important. As long as it maintains superficial unity, the purpose is to prevent the Soviet Union from annexing the three eastern provinces.
Cairo Conference
As early as the Cairo Conference in 1943, Roosevelt and Chiang Kai-shek put forward the proposal to form a coalition government. This was also the United States' attempt to solve the China problem for a period of time. Basic national policy, of course, the establishment of a coalition government must follow the following two basic principles:
. Chiang Kai-shek's leadership must be maintained. After all, Chiang Kai-shek's attitude towards the United States is obvious to all. If someone else changes his position, he might cause trouble. Once he breaks away from the Soviet Union Too close and not in the interests of the United States.
. The existence of the CCP cannot be ignored, and some form of "KMT-CCP coalition government" must be promoted.
Chiang Kai-shek’s attitude
In fact, this principle is contradictory. On the one hand, it is necessary to maintain Chiang Kai-shek’s status, and on the other hand, it is necessary to decentralize power. Therefore, in June 1944, when Wallace proposed the formation of a coalition government between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party He was rejected by Chiang Kai-shek on the spot. Seeing that it was impossible, Stilwell and Gauss threatened to stop US aid and forced Chiang Kai-shek to accept it. Chiang Kai-shek turned over the table and quit on the spot. At this time, the United States still needed Chiang Kai-shek. In order to appease him, Chiang Kai-shek decided to Dewey and Goss resigned one after another, and the subsequent work of forming a coalition government was handled by the new ambassador to China Hurley.
Hurley
Hurley, like Stilwell and others, used the threat of stopping U.S. aid to force Chiang Kai-shek to submit. However, Chiang Kai-shek refused to give in. At this moment, the relationship war broke out. Post-Global Relations Ya The Yalta Agreement was signed, which triggered a new policy in the United States
The Yalta Conference Big Three
The Yalta Agreement with mixed blessings
The Yalta Agreement The signing of the Far East part at that time mainly had the following three points:
. After the end of the European war, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan within three months in order to end the war as soon as possible;
. As a reward for the Soviet Union’s sending troops, China recognized the independence of Outer Mongolia and restored The interests in the Northeast during the Tsarist Russia era were obtained by Lushun, Dalian and the Zhongchang Railway;
Zhongchang Railway
. In exchange for the above interests, the Soviet Union did not support the Chinese Communist Party in seizing national power.
This agreement gave the United States mixed joy and sorrow. After all, in order for the Soviet Union to participate in the war, it had to let Soviet power penetrate into the three Northeastern provinces. However, the Soviet Union made it clear that it was only restoring the interests of the Tsarist Russia era and was willing to maintain the territorial integrity of Outer Mongolia and did not annex the three Northeastern provinces. plan, and the most important thing is to support the Chinese Communist Party to lay down its arms and join the coalition government. From this, the US policy began to change and entered the stage of "alliance with the Soviet Union to support Chiang Kai-shek and suppress the Communist Party."
The useless Chongqing Negotiations
On August 14, 1945, the "Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance" was signed. Hurley took it for granted that China Seeing that the Soviet Union in the same camp actually stood on the side of the Kuomintang, the CCP without backing and support would definitely give in and form a coalition government. Therefore, under Hurley’s strong request and the strong pressure exerted by Stalin, Chairman Mao finally came to power in 1945 On August 28, 2016, he flew to Chongqing to participate in Chongqing negotiations.
The signing scene of the "Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance"
Unfortunately, Hurley thought that the CCP was a party that obeyed Stalin's sons. In fact, the Chongqing negotiations lasted a month and a half, In addition to signing the "Double Ten Agreement" which was like useless paper, the most important impact was that it became Chairman Mao's propaganda platform, which gave the CCP great political prestige., just a few days after the signing of the "Double Ten Agreement" , Chiang Kai-shek began to attack the liberated areas, and the Chongqing negotiations broke down.
Chongqing negotiations
This made Hurley look confused. Also confused was Truman. , after the mediation of the two major powers, nothing was done well, so Hurley resigned, and another big boss Marshall comes on stage.
Before Marshall went to China, he visited Stilwell, who had been dealing with China for many years. Stilwell said that Chiang Kai-shek was more difficult to serve. The United States would not give up on Chiang Kai-shek, and Chiang Kai-shek knew it well, so He will never make any concessions to the CCP, and on this basis, he will become even tougher, leaving Marshall helpless.
Marshall
In addition, Marshall was also afraid that a conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union would break out directly in the Northeast, so he first tested the Soviet Union to see whether it would comply with the Yalta Agreement. As a result, Stalin was still very cooperative, first drove the CCP out of the big cities in the Northeast, then let the Kuomintang take over the major cities in the Northeast, and airlifted iron and stone troops to occupy Changchun. In addition, the Soviet army would stay in the Northeast for a few more months to ensure that the Kuomintang was in place. Go further to prevent the Soviet army from retreating early and allowing the CCP to take advantage of the opportunity to control the entire Northeast .
The Iron and Stone Forces were the elite troops of the puppet army at that time
The Kuomintang’s bad chess
However, the wish is good, but the reality is cruel. After all, the Kuomintang’s pig teammate messed up the Soviet Union’s withdrawal. Everyone knew what was going on, but the Kuomintang government wanted to be both responsible and independent. On the one hand, it needed the Soviet army to suppress the CCP, and on the other hand, it wanted to occupy the commanding heights of nationalism. It criticized the Soviet army for delaying its withdrawal in newspapers. As a result, Stalin In anger, they withdrew from the Northeast in advance. In the end, the arsenals of major cities in the Northeast were obtained by our army, and the puppet troops previously collected by the Kuomintang were also taken away, beating the Kuomintang to pieces.
The United States intervened in the struggle between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in the Northeast
After the Soviet Union withdrew, the United States stepped up its transportation of the Kuomintang troops to seize the city. Because it was afraid that the Soviet Union would gain access to the Northeast, the United States worked particularly hard on transportation. Finally, in the first half of 1946 Du Yuming finally assembled 240,000 regular troops. There were also 80,000 puppet troops recruited, giving them an advantage in strength.
US military air transport plan
And Wedemeyer, who had previously actively implemented the troop transport plan, was also warned by Washington not to fight with the CCP army during this period. However, the US military still had many conflicts with the CCP army in North China. This matter was mentioned in "Farewell, Mentioned in Leighton Stuart .
In the spring of 1946, the struggle between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party in the Northeast officially entered a fierce stage. Wedemeyer came out again. On the grounds that the Kuomintang army was unable to do so, he requested that seven divisions be deployed between North China and Northeast China. The defense was nominally deployed, but the purpose was still to intervene. Liberation War , you must know that once it intervenes, the Soviet Union, which finally left the Northeast and came back again, will make all its previous efforts in vain.
"After the Armistice" tells the story of this incident.
In the end, only Marine Corps divisions were sent to station on the pretext of disarming the Japanese army and deporting prisoners. Among them, there were about 10,000 people in North China, and they once again stated that they would not intervene in the civil war. , however, a conflict broke out and they were even captured. In the end, the US military publicly apologized before returning.
Wedemeyer wanted to intervene in the civil war all day long, and Marshall was fed up with him. Originally, as planned, Wedemeyer planned to stay and become the new ambassador to China, but he had to make trouble all day long. In the end, Marshall recommended former Yanjing to Truman. Leighton Stuart, the president of the university, served as the new ambassador to China. Finally, in March 1946, Wedemeyer returned to China. At this point, the first military intervention game of the United States ended.
Stuart Leighton
After the troublemaker Wedemeyer left, Marshall finally had the energy to organize negotiations. Relying on Marshall's words, the two sides forced the two sides to sign an armistice agreement. In early March 1946, Marshall's mediation progressed smoothly, and the two sides launched a series of negotiations. An agreement was reached on practical issues. As for Chiang Kai-shek, he was naturally unwilling to give in. His diary during this period was filled with all kinds of grievances and complaints.
However, at the end of that month, Du Yuming began to attack Shenyang, which made Marshall's previous efforts in vain. Just as Stilwell said before, Chiang Kai-shek could not give up. From then on, Marshall could only take one step. In March 1946, the Liberation War officially broke out. Although Marshall did not give up mediation, he also saw that Chiang Kai-shek really couldn't do it. , it is too difficult to win.
Du Yuming who was stationed in Shenyang
Just when the War of Liberation was in full swing, the situation around the world began to change, especially the situation in Europe was in danger. The war of communism swept the world. In the end, Marshall was transferred back to serve as Secretary of State and launched the famous " Marshall Plan ". The U.S. troops stationed in China also followed Marshall's footsteps and began to slowly retreat. Of course, they were beaten away. After all, many conflicts broke out in North China, mainly the Anping incident , which aroused strong emotions among the people. Finally, in 1947 Complete withdrawal of troops in May.
The second war crisis
With the full withdrawal of the US military, the Northeast battlefield began to reverse. Lin Shuai won Three attacks on Jiangnan and four on Linjiang. Du Yuming lost his strategic initiative and had no choice but to ask for help from Chiang Kai-shek. In June 1947, Chiang Kai-shek personally asked Leighton Stuart for assistance from the United States. In the end, Marshall once again used Wedemeyer to go to China for inspection. Wedemeyer was sent because he was the only one who could clear up the situation in China and not be fooled by Chiang Kai-shek. , and advocated aid to China.
Wedemeyer
In August 1947, Wedemeyer went to China and claimed in his report that Chiang Kai-shek was almost done with his life, so he could not wait for him as before. After Chiang Kai-shek reformed, we need to increase aid. Otherwise, Chiang Kai-shek's regime will soon be gone. Of course, Wedemeyer also said that if Chiang Kai-shek does not carry out large-scale reforms, no amount of aid will be effective. Therefore, U.S. aid must be based on Chiang Kai-shek's reforms. The premise is so contradictory.
Chiang Kai-shek was scolded by Wedemeyer and thought that he would be replaced by the United States if he did not reform. He cautiously went to the US Embassy to inquire, only to find that everything was still the same and he was as arrogant as before.
In fact, there is a core part in Wedemeyer's report, which is Wedemeyer believes that the situation in Northeast China cannot be solved even with large-scale assistance. The only way is direct military intervention by the United States. Wedemeyer is still thinking about his previous thoughts, directly The military intervened and proposed to the United Nations that the five military forces of the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France, and China would jointly station in the Northeast and implement condominium management. If the Soviet Union refused, it would be handed over to the United Nations for custody.
1947 Autumn Offensive
However, this report has not been made public. After all, it would have a great impact if it were made public. After all, China began to wake up after the fall of the three northeastern provinces and fought for 15 years. If the US military enters the Northeast now, it will He immediately became the enemy of all Chinese people, and the Chiang Kai-shek regime was immediately over.
As for the subsequent aid to Chiang Kai-shek, the United States only approved it in April 1948. At first, Chiang Kai-shek asked for 1 billion, but after many delays and delays, he finally got only 400 million. This also shows that the United States was the leader and the rat at that time. end strategy.
The third war crisis
In 1948, the situation of the War of Liberation had begun to become clear. The People's Liberation Army fought more and more in the Northeast. A million-strong army in the Northeast had taken shape. Hu Zongnan in the northwest was chased and beaten by Mr. Peng, and Yan in Shanxi Xishan was blocked by Marshal Xu in Taiyuan. Although the three major battles of had not yet begun, the United States already felt that the situation was a bit bad.
Millions of Troops Enter the Customs
On August 10, 1948, Leighton Stuart issued an article "Leiden Stuart, Ambassador to China, to Secretary of State Marshall", requesting the United States to intervene militarily and economically. This was also the beginning of the crisis for the United States to enter the war for the third time.
However, the United States now also realizes that the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek is unstoppable, and the more interference there is, the more difficult the task will be, the greater the price will be paid, and it will fall into the quagmire of war, which is not in the interests of the United States. Therefore, the top priority is to prevent China from becoming a vassal of the Soviet Union, and the "Asian Tito Strategy" was proposed to make China become Asia's Yugoslavia . The Chinese Communist Party also analyzed the possibility of U.S. intervention in local areas and made arrangements.
Other people's promotion
Just when the Huaihai Campaign was reaching its climax, former American diplomat Bullitt made the "Pulitt Report to the Committee for Aid to the United States" and proposed He asked the United States to continue to assist the United States with 800 million U.S. dollars. In addition, he restored the Chennault Air Force Volunteer Flying Tigers for support and asked him to lead 500 fighter jets. Finally, he asked MacArthur to lead 600 officers to take control of the Kuomintang military and help defeat the People's Liberation Army.
Chennault
After Chennault heard this, he was very happy. All his previous property was exchanged for gold yuan coupons. was cheated, and all his wealth was tied to Chiang Kai-shek's chariot. After hearing this proposal, he made it public in " declaration " Expressed willingness to join the war.
The People's Liberation Army is also well prepared to face US intervention. After all, in March, the United States and Chiang Kai-shek jointly bombed the cruiser Chongqing, which had just revolted, and there were rumors that the US military would organize a three million-strong army to attack North China and Several ports in the Northeast were landed, and Japan was also reinstating the disbanded imperial army. This aroused concern in the Soviet Union, and even Stalin sent a telegram to Chairman Mao.
Cruiser Chongqing
However, Chairman Mao did not think that the United States was preparing to intervene. He saw that the US military had no intention of confrontation, nor did he see any temptation to advance. This is mainly due to the wavering attitude of the United States in the past year. And after careful analysis of the changes, I came to the conclusion that Chairman Mao said that I should continue the war until victory.
Amethyst incident
Before the Battle of Crossing the River in April 1949, the British warship Amethyst invaded Chang The water surface of the Yangtze River was shelled by the People's Liberation Army. This was the first time our army fought with the British since 1840. The British suffered a bitter experience and showed that they are no longer bullied by everyone. This is also the role of the People's Liberation Army on the international stage. The first appearance also showed the determination to defend national interests.
The Amethyst
The sudden incident on the Amethyst made Situ Lei lament that he did not send a US ship in, and the US Consul General in Shanghai Gerbold and the naval officers were also in urgent discussions. After the meeting, in order to prevent the Amethyst incident from happening to the US warships, they immediately ordered a retreat. Although MacArthur clamored not to allow the US warships to retreat, he could not control the navy's affairs. In the end, all US warships except one hospital ship were withdrawn. We arrived outside at Wusongkou.
After hearing about this incident, the People's Liberation Army launched the Shanghai Battle in advance. The Kuomintang ship still kept a sense of luck and pretended to be a U.S. warship and opened fire on the People's Liberation Army. This caused dissatisfaction with the CCP and immediately contacted Leighton Stuart, who immediately assured that the U.S. military had left. Wu Song confessed that he had nothing to do with them and saw through the Kuomintang's trick of dragging the US military into the water.
The liberation of Shanghai
After the liberation of Shanghai, Liu and Deng's armies were stationed between Zhejiang and Jiangxi, maintaining a defensive posture against the United States until the possibility of U.S. intervention from the North China coast to the southeast coast was ruled out. In June, The U.S. National Security Council finally It was determined that the People's Liberation Army had occupied and controlled the entire coastline, including Guangzhou, and the possibility of U.S. military intervention in the war of liberation was completely lost. At this point, the three military actions prepared by the United States to intervene in the War of Liberation were completely ended.
Why didn’t the US military intervene directly?
The first thing is After the end of World War II , the strategic goal of the United States was to compete for Europe and divide the global colonies, and the war of liberation ranked behind them.
The Iron Curtain Speech in 1946 marked the beginning of the Cold War
Secondly, China’s awakening of nationalism during the Anti-Japanese War made many American politicians say that the cost of military intervention was too high. They also carefully analyzed it and finally determined that if they wanted to intervene, The U.S. military must deploy millions of troops, which is obviously not time-limited for the United States after World War II.
The containment effect of the Third Soviet Union. Although the Soviet Union tried its best to maintain the Yalta Agreement in the Far East and even sold out the CCP for profit, it did not allow the Soviet Union to have an extremely anti-Soviet regime to threaten the Soviet Union’s national security, let alone tolerate the presence of the US military. On the border, the United States must consider the Soviet Union's ideas and avoid breaking the tacit understanding of carving up the world together. After all, if the United States and the Soviet Union rise, only the British will be happiest. Then wouldn't the entire World War II be in vain?
The three major battles took only a few months.
Finally, it was Chairman Mao’s strategic thinking that decisively carried out the three major battles, which led to the rapid end of the Liberation War, so fast that the United States had no time to spare its hands to directly intervene. Once the Liberation War continued In a few years, the United States will have a completely free hand to intervene. This is why Chairman Mao said, "The war of resistance against Japan cannot be made too fast, and the war of liberation cannot be slow." Of course, the Chinese Communist Party government is really bad.
