Date of Graduation
1997
Document Type
Thesis
Abstract
This dissertation examines John S. Service's China career as a Foreign Service officer from 1933-45, and the impact of his diplomatic activities and political reports on Sino-American relations during World War II. It explores his dual heritage as an American missionary son who was born and bred in China, revealing how this American-Chinese experience affected his personality and diplomatic approach that proved to be critical in his distinctive life and career. World War II presented China and the United States with an unparalleled opportunity for close cooperation and the two countries worked to build an effective alliance, but the promising wartime cooperation soon deteriorated into disillusionment. The dramatic change in U.S.-China relations from friendly involvement to hostile non-recognition following the 1949 Communist victory triggered bitter debates in the United States over America's China policy. Political analysts and historians have, for decades, posed questions as to how America "lost China" or suffered a "lost chance" in China. The focus of this political and scholarly scrutiny has been America's wartime China policy and the role of such "China hands" as John Service. Despite the rich literature on Sino-American relations during World War II from both sides of the Pacific, the long posed question of whether America had adopted a realistic policy concerning wartime China needs to be clarified, and Service's role in the dramatic Sino-American discourse fully investigated. The available literature on those subjects was largely written in the 1950s and 1960s during the Cold War, and in the 1970s amidst the "China-mania." Moreover, they were mostly either based on fragmentary sources, chiefly in English, or influenced by political environment. The recent release of declassified archival material and primary documents in the United States and China makes it both possible and necessary to produce a more comprehensive and balanced study on Service and U.S.-China relations in the turbulent 1930s and 1940s. Based on extensive research on primary and secondary sources in English and Chinese, and on personal interviews with Service, this dissertation concludes that Service, with his extensive Chinese experience, was one of the few Americans who had a comprehensive understanding of China and its problems. His insights into Chinese political situations were firmly based; his prediction of a Chinese civil war and the Communist victory has withstood the test of time. His enthusiastic call for America's assertive intervention in Chinese domestic affairs and his passionate effort to remake China along democratic lines, especially his recommendations of cooperating with the Chinese Communists were, despite his good intentions, impractical considering China's strong nationalist sentiment and America's long-standing anti-Communist politics. In the end America's well-intentioned interventionist undertakings in China failed and Service, with his extraordinary career there, became a victim of history.
Recommended Citation
Wang, Yufeng, "John S. Service and United States-China relations, 1933--1945." (1997). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 9980.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/9980