The China Mirage
Books | History / Asia / China
4.2
James Bradley
A spellbinding history of US-China relations from the nineteenth century to World War II and Mao’s ascent, by the author of Flags of Our Fathers and Flyboys.“Bradley is sharp and rueful, and a voice for a more seasoned, constructive vision of our international relations with East Asia.” —Christian Science MonitorIn this engrossing book, bestselling author James Bradley introduces us to the prominent Americans—including Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s grandfather Warren Delano—who in the 1800s made their fortunes in the China opium trade. As these men profited by addicting millions, American churches sent missionaries in search of a myth: noble Chinese peasants eager to westernize.The media enthusiastically propagated this image, and FDR agreed that US support for Chiang Kai-shek and his glamorous American-educated wife would turn China into America’s best friend in Asia. But Chiang was on his way out, and when Mao Zedong came to power, Americans were shocked, wondering how we had “lost China.” Taking us from the nineteenth century through World War II and to the origins of the Vietnam War, Bradley reveals how American misconceptions about China have distorted our domestic and foreign policies and led to the avoidable deaths of millions. Thrillingly told, The China Mirage dynamically explores the troubled history that defines US-China relations to this day.“A vivid, bracing, and careful study. . . . Bradley’s valuable book offers a warning about past and future unnecessary entanglements.” —History News Network“Bradley has produced another gripping historical account with ramifications for today’s world.” —World Affairs Council“The China Mirage underscored the missed opportunities in our relationship with China—a lesson for our current leaders.” —Portland Press Herald
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Author
James Bradley
Pages
371
Publisher
Hachette+ORM
Published Date
2015-04-21
ISBN
0316196665 9780316196666
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"Full review and highlights at <a href="https://books.max-nova.com/china-mirage">https://books.max-nova.com/china-mirage</a><br/><br/>Was the US government's disastrous Asia policy in the 20th century driven largely by misperceptions of reality and a concerted lobbying and PR effort from China? In "The China Mirage," James Bradley (author of "Flags of our Fathers") sets out a revisionist history of Sino-US relations that bears almost no connection to the history presented in the textbooks I read growing up. Franklin Delano Roosevelt's family fortune came from opium smuggling by his maternal grandfather, Warren Delano? Chiang Kai-shek (or, as Churchill called him, "Generalissimo Cash My-check.") was a fascist crook who swindled 3x more money out of the US than we spent on developing the atomic bomb?! Pearl Buck's wildly popular (and Pulitzer / Nobel winning) "The Good Earth" and Henry Luce's influential Time Magazine portrayed a China full of "Noble Chinese Peasants" waiting to be Christianized/Americanized - an imaginary China that reflected the hopes and dreams of a shadowy "China Lobby," but one that most certainly did not exist on the ground in the Middle Kingdom?? And we were making global-scale policy based on this make-believe?! Bradley gathers evidence from a wide variety of sources to trace a shocking narrative about how American blunders in Asia led to the "loss" of China and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of American soldiers in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.<br/><br/>I'm always skeptical of grand revisionist histories that involve murky conspiracies, and Bradley's loosely organized "China Lobby" doesn't quite get me all the way there on this one. But he does connect some fascinating dots. The cast of characters is essentially a bunch of Harvard and Yale bros (both Roosevelts, Russell, Stimson, Luce, Corcoran, McNamara, Kissinger) with several Bonesmen sprinkled in for good measure. The prominence of American universities in this whole saga beggars belief. Sun Yat-Sen's main funder, Charlie Soong was a Chinese Bible-publishing magnate who went to Duke and Vanderbilt. His daughter Ailing graduated from Wesleyan in Macon, Georgia and married a Yalie H. H. Kung who became China's richest banker. Her brother, T.V. Soong went to Harvard. And even earlier, Teddy Roosevelt's confidant and fellow Harvard alum Baron Kaneko played an integral role in securing Roosevelt's assistance to negotiate the Treaty of Portsmouth to end the Russo-Japanese war (and sell Korea out to the Japanese). And for a more modern Yalie connection, Bradley quips that "Secretary of State John Forbes Kerry’s great-grandfather was Francis Blackwell Forbes, who got rich selling opium in China.""
Max Nova