
Mission to Mao
US Intelligence and the Chinese Communists in World War II
Sara B. Castro(Author)
Georgetown University Press
Published on 3. September 2024
Book
Hardback
235 pages
978-1-64712-450-2 (ISBN)
Description
An innovative history of US intelligence officers on the ground and the first official contacts between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party
From 1944 to 1947, the United States planted a liaison mission in the headquarters of Chinese Communist forces behind the lines. Nicknamed the "Dixie Mission," for its location in "rebel" territory, it was an interagency delegation that included intelligence officers from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the US Army, and the State Department.
Mission to Mao is a social history of the OSS officers in the field that reveals the weakness of US intelligence diplomacy in the 1940s. Drawing on over 14,000 unpublished records from five archives as well as white papers and memoirs from the participants, Sara B. Castro demonstrates how the US intelligence officers in China clashed with political appointees and Washington over the direction of the US relationship with the Chinese Communists. Interagency and political conflicts erupted over assessments of Communist capabilities and whether or not the mission would later involve operations with the Communists. Castro shows how potential benefits for the war effort were thwarted by politicization, rivalries, and the biases of US intelligence officials.
Mission to Mao is a fresh look at US intelligence in WW II China and takes readers beyond the history of "China Hands" versus American anticommunists, introducing more nuance.
From 1944 to 1947, the United States planted a liaison mission in the headquarters of Chinese Communist forces behind the lines. Nicknamed the "Dixie Mission," for its location in "rebel" territory, it was an interagency delegation that included intelligence officers from the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the US Army, and the State Department.
Mission to Mao is a social history of the OSS officers in the field that reveals the weakness of US intelligence diplomacy in the 1940s. Drawing on over 14,000 unpublished records from five archives as well as white papers and memoirs from the participants, Sara B. Castro demonstrates how the US intelligence officers in China clashed with political appointees and Washington over the direction of the US relationship with the Chinese Communists. Interagency and political conflicts erupted over assessments of Communist capabilities and whether or not the mission would later involve operations with the Communists. Castro shows how potential benefits for the war effort were thwarted by politicization, rivalries, and the biases of US intelligence officials.
Mission to Mao is a fresh look at US intelligence in WW II China and takes readers beyond the history of "China Hands" versus American anticommunists, introducing more nuance.
Reviews / Votes
Mission to Mao is well-documented, drawing on over 14,000 records from five archives. It humanizes the participants of [this] operation....This book fills a gap in scholarship and is a must-read for all historians, students of history, and consumers of intelligence and diplomatic history interested in the U.S. and China. * The Journal of America's Military Past * Castro has produced the best account of the U.S. Army Observer Group Yan'an mission to the Chinese Communist Party base. * War on the Rocks *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Washington, DC
United States
Target group
College/higher education
US School Grade: College Graduate Student and over
Product notice
sewn/stitched
Cloth over boards
Illustrations
Not illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 232 mm
Width: 158 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
440 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-64712-450-2 (9781647124502)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
09/2024
Georgetown University Press
€38.99
Available for download
Person
Sara B. Castro is an assistant professor in the Department of History at the US Air Force Academy, the president of the Society for Intelligence History, and a former US intelligence analyst. Castro earned a doctorate in history from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.