Raymond P. Ludden
Encyclopedia
Raymond P. Ludden was one of the United States State Department's China
experts. He was born in Fall River, Massachusetts
, graduated from the Georgetown University
School of Foreign Service, and in 1932 went to China, where he served for seventeen years. He spoke Mandarin Chinese fluently.
Ludden was interned by the Japanese in Shanghai
the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor
but was released the following year in what was then Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique
) as part of a diplomatic exchange arranged by the Swiss Red Cross. He volunteered to return to China and was subsequently detailed to Joseph W. Stilwell as a member of an elite political intelligence team.
The other three members of the team were John P. Davies
, a China expert and leader of the team; John S. Service
, a China expert; and John Emmerson, a Japan expert. All were Foreign Service Officers "on loan" to Stilwell from the State Department. Ludden held the rank of a field grade officer and served in Burma, where he was the first American to buy elephants to help in the construction of the supply route from India to China, and later in China as Stilwell's liaison to the 20th Bomber Command in Chengdu.
Stilwell had for some time locked horns with Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kaishek) over the conduct of the war and had become increasingly interested in the possibility of working with the Chinese Communist forces in orter to carry out a landing on the North China coast. Jiang had strenuously opposed the idea but finally relented under pressure from President Roosevelt
and allowed Stilwell to send an U.S. Army observer section to the Chinese Communist base area in Yan'an. Ludden was chosen to be part of it.
The observer section was known informally as the Dixie Mission
, and it had both military and political objectives. The military objectives, broadly, were to find out whether or not the Communist forces were in fact fighting the Japanese and whether or not they were in fact willing to fight under Stilwell's command. The political objectives were, again broadly, to find out how much support the Communists had among the people, whether or not they had in fact turned away from Moscow and were pursuing their own uniquely Chinese vision of a socialist state, and whether or not they were sincere about wanting the friendship and support of the United States both during and after the war.
Ludden's role with the Dixie Mission was to travel through enemy-occupied territory with a small field group of seven Americans and a guerrilla bodyguard to the Communist Jin Cha Ji headquarters near Fouping. The other six members of the field group were Brook Dolan, Paul Domke, Walter Gress
, Simon H. Hitch
, Wilbur J. Peterkin
(the group's leader), and Henry C. Whittlesey. The trip would last some four months and take them more than a thousand miles on foot and by mule through the dead of the Chinese winter with Japanese patrols in pursuit.
Ludden's objective was to find out if the political observations made by Jack Service, John Emmerson, and other observers in and around Yan'an held true throughout the areas controlled by the Communists. This information would be a critical factor in Stilwell's decision whether or not to work with the Communists. On the way back to Yan'an, Henry Whittlesey and his interpreter were captured and killed by the Japanese. Ludden was later awarded the Bronze Star, as were the other members of the field group.
The Dixie Mission played-out against a backdrop of political intrigue within the American camp. Patrick Hurley, who had been sent by Roosevelt as a personal emissary to China in order to pressure Jiang into cooperating with Stilwell, had instead sided with Jiang and had Stilwell recalled. When the American Ambassador resigned following Stilwell's recall, Hurley was appointed in his place and right away pressed for a policy of unconditional support for Jiang. He also purged his staff of anyone who disagreed.
When Ludden returned from Fouping and reported to Hurley in January 1945, Hurley was not interested in what he had seen and instead upbraided him for having gone to Fouping in the first place. It was, perhaps, a blessing in disguise. Although Ludden was one of Stilwell's political officers, the months he spent in Japanese occupied territory had prevented him from producing much of a paper trail. His observations and analyses were kept safely in his head but for a collection of brief entries in a small journal. This, and the award of a Bronze Star, allowed him to remain largely in under the radar and avoid the persecution to which Davies and Service would later be put by Hurley and other supporters of Jiang.
As a result, Ludden never fully told his side of the story. He spent the next several months on assignment in the United States while the controversy raged and the negotiations between Yan'an and Chongqing began to fall more and more apart. He was sent back to China following Hurley's resignation, and it was in the months to follow that he came to know several of the key players on both sides, especially Zhou Enlai
. He remained in China until the communist revolution in 1949.
Ludden later went through the loyalty-security hearings of the McCarthy
period and was cleared, but because of the controversy surrounding his work in China he was left to finish out his career in Europe. He retired to Massachusetts in 1961 and spent much of the next fifteen years studying and analyzing what had happened and why.
Ludden had seen firsthand how Hurley's policy of unconditional support for Jiang had undermined the negotiations that were going on between Chongqing and Yan'an and alienated the Communists at that critical moment when they clearly had tremendous popular support and were reaching out to the United States. It was, he felt, a mistake of tragic proportion, the effects of which can still be felt today.
The subsequent wars in Korea
and Vietnam
, he felt, would not have played out as they did if the United States had had China as a strategic partner in the region, nor would the monumental task of rebuilding China from the ground up after the war have played out as harshly as it did if China had in fact had the United States as a friend and partner. If peace and equality were the goals of American policy, he felt, the line between friend and enemy had been drawn in the wrong place. It is a lesson yet unlearned. He died in 1979.
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
experts. He was born in Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River, Massachusetts
Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located about south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and west of New Bedford and south of Taunton. The city's population was 88,857 during the 2010 census, making it the tenth largest city in...
, graduated from the Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...
School of Foreign Service, and in 1932 went to China, where he served for seventeen years. He spoke Mandarin Chinese fluently.
Ludden was interned by the Japanese in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
but was released the following year in what was then Portuguese East Africa (now Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
) as part of a diplomatic exchange arranged by the Swiss Red Cross. He volunteered to return to China and was subsequently detailed to Joseph W. Stilwell as a member of an elite political intelligence team.
The other three members of the team were John P. Davies
John P. Davies
John Paton Davies, Jr. was an American diplomat and Medal of Freedom recipient. He was one of the China Hands, whose careers in the Foreign Service were destroyed by McCarthyism and the reaction to the fall of China....
, a China expert and leader of the team; John S. Service
John S. Service
John Stewart Service was an American diplomat who served in the Foreign Service in China prior to and during the World War II. Considered one of the State Department's "China Hands," he was an important member of the Dixie Mission to Yan'an...
, a China expert; and John Emmerson, a Japan expert. All were Foreign Service Officers "on loan" to Stilwell from the State Department. Ludden held the rank of a field grade officer and served in Burma, where he was the first American to buy elephants to help in the construction of the supply route from India to China, and later in China as Stilwell's liaison to the 20th Bomber Command in Chengdu.
Stilwell had for some time locked horns with Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kaishek) over the conduct of the war and had become increasingly interested in the possibility of working with the Chinese Communist forces in orter to carry out a landing on the North China coast. Jiang had strenuously opposed the idea but finally relented under pressure from President Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
and allowed Stilwell to send an U.S. Army observer section to the Chinese Communist base area in Yan'an. Ludden was chosen to be part of it.
The observer section was known informally as the Dixie Mission
Dixie Mission
The United States Army Observation Group, commonly known as the Dixie Mission, was the first U.S. effort to establish official relations with the Communist Party of China and the People's Liberation Army, then headquartered in the mountainous city of Yan'an...
, and it had both military and political objectives. The military objectives, broadly, were to find out whether or not the Communist forces were in fact fighting the Japanese and whether or not they were in fact willing to fight under Stilwell's command. The political objectives were, again broadly, to find out how much support the Communists had among the people, whether or not they had in fact turned away from Moscow and were pursuing their own uniquely Chinese vision of a socialist state, and whether or not they were sincere about wanting the friendship and support of the United States both during and after the war.
Ludden's role with the Dixie Mission was to travel through enemy-occupied territory with a small field group of seven Americans and a guerrilla bodyguard to the Communist Jin Cha Ji headquarters near Fouping. The other six members of the field group were Brook Dolan, Paul Domke, Walter Gress
Walter Gress
Walter Gress was a member of the Dixie Mission, an American observation mission to Yan'an, China, in 1944 to investigate and establish official relations with the Chinese Communists.-References:...
, Simon H. Hitch
Simon H. Hitch
Simon H. Hitch was a member of the Dixie Mission, an American observation mission to Yan'an, China, in 1944 to investigate and establish official relations with the Chinese Communists.-References:...
, Wilbur J. Peterkin
Wilbur J. Peterkin
Colonel Wilbur J. Peterkin was a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army during the Second World War in the China Burma India Theater, and an executive and commanding officer of the United States Army Observer Group, commonly known as the Dixie Mission. Prior to the war, Peterkin was a high...
(the group's leader), and Henry C. Whittlesey. The trip would last some four months and take them more than a thousand miles on foot and by mule through the dead of the Chinese winter with Japanese patrols in pursuit.
Ludden's objective was to find out if the political observations made by Jack Service, John Emmerson, and other observers in and around Yan'an held true throughout the areas controlled by the Communists. This information would be a critical factor in Stilwell's decision whether or not to work with the Communists. On the way back to Yan'an, Henry Whittlesey and his interpreter were captured and killed by the Japanese. Ludden was later awarded the Bronze Star, as were the other members of the field group.
The Dixie Mission played-out against a backdrop of political intrigue within the American camp. Patrick Hurley, who had been sent by Roosevelt as a personal emissary to China in order to pressure Jiang into cooperating with Stilwell, had instead sided with Jiang and had Stilwell recalled. When the American Ambassador resigned following Stilwell's recall, Hurley was appointed in his place and right away pressed for a policy of unconditional support for Jiang. He also purged his staff of anyone who disagreed.
When Ludden returned from Fouping and reported to Hurley in January 1945, Hurley was not interested in what he had seen and instead upbraided him for having gone to Fouping in the first place. It was, perhaps, a blessing in disguise. Although Ludden was one of Stilwell's political officers, the months he spent in Japanese occupied territory had prevented him from producing much of a paper trail. His observations and analyses were kept safely in his head but for a collection of brief entries in a small journal. This, and the award of a Bronze Star, allowed him to remain largely in under the radar and avoid the persecution to which Davies and Service would later be put by Hurley and other supporters of Jiang.
As a result, Ludden never fully told his side of the story. He spent the next several months on assignment in the United States while the controversy raged and the negotiations between Yan'an and Chongqing began to fall more and more apart. He was sent back to China following Hurley's resignation, and it was in the months to follow that he came to know several of the key players on both sides, especially Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai
Zhou Enlai was the first Premier of the People's Republic of China, serving from October 1949 until his death in January 1976...
. He remained in China until the communist revolution in 1949.
Ludden later went through the loyalty-security hearings of the McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
period and was cleared, but because of the controversy surrounding his work in China he was left to finish out his career in Europe. He retired to Massachusetts in 1961 and spent much of the next fifteen years studying and analyzing what had happened and why.
Ludden had seen firsthand how Hurley's policy of unconditional support for Jiang had undermined the negotiations that were going on between Chongqing and Yan'an and alienated the Communists at that critical moment when they clearly had tremendous popular support and were reaching out to the United States. It was, he felt, a mistake of tragic proportion, the effects of which can still be felt today.
The subsequent wars in Korea
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
and Vietnam
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, he felt, would not have played out as they did if the United States had had China as a strategic partner in the region, nor would the monumental task of rebuilding China from the ground up after the war have played out as harshly as it did if China had in fact had the United States as a friend and partner. If peace and equality were the goals of American policy, he felt, the line between friend and enemy had been drawn in the wrong place. It is a lesson yet unlearned. He died in 1979.