War & Peace

The Nationalist Government made eleventh-hour efforts for peace. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek proposed a five-man supercommittee (headed by U.S. Ambassador J. Leighton Stuart) to work out a plan for a coalition government with the Communists. The Communists agreed to participate on the committee if they were left undisturbed in North China. Since the Communist grip on North China --and on the main railroad arteries--was a major issue between Yenan and Nanking, this condition was not so simple as it seemed.

While the peacemakers dickered, China's civil war raged on. Both sides announced important gains. The Nationalists claimed the capture of Chengteh, capital of mountainous, strategic Jehol province. The Communists claimed the capture of the railroad junction of Tatung, near China's Great Wall, after a four weeks' siege.

At week's end Communist General Chou En-lai demanded that the U.S. end all aid to Nationalist China or openly support Chiang Kai-shek in "the total all-out civil war." He attacked particularly the sale to the Nanking Government of $800 million of surplus U.S. civilian goods left in the Far East by departing U.S. forces.

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