China: The War Years

China: The War Years

1943 Cairo Conference was the only meeting between Chiang, President Roosevelt and Britain’s Winston Churchill, Mme, Chiang served as interpreter. General Stilwell stands behind FDR with Gen. Eisenhower to his left. Decisions made at this summit were quickly abandoned after meeting with Stalin in Teheran a few days later.
US Naval Institute Photo Archive

1945 Potsdam Conference: newly appointed President Harry Truman seated between Clement Atlee, (the unknown British politician who replaced Churchill after upset elections) and Joseph Stalin of the USSR. Truman got Soviet agreement to enter the war against the Japanese which created serious consequences for China, Korea and the world community.
US Naval Institute Photo Archive

John Service being carried down Chungking “ladder street” on his way to present his diplomatic credentials in 1941. His top hat was borrowed from a British diplomat and stuffed with newspaper to make it fit.
Courtesy Service Family

Fueling aircraft in China was a painstaking process. Barrels were airlifted over the Hump, gas was then transferred into 5-gallon containers to be poured into wing fuel tanks.
Courtesy NARA

Col. David Barrett and diplomat John Service the leaders of the initial Dixie Mission outside their Yenan billet.
Courtesy Service Family

Mao and Zhu De with Americans walk past the U.S. supply plane in 1944, dubbed the “Wounded Duck” after a mishap at Yan’an airstrip caused broken propeller.
Courtesy Service Family

John Service and other Americans briefly helped repair Yenan airstrip in 1944, but amazed Chinese stopped work to stare at the foreigners doing manual labor.
Courtesy Service Family

John Service poses with top Chinese Communist leaders in Yenan: Zhou Enlai, Zhu De, Service, Mao Zedong, and Ye Jianying in 1944.
Courtesy Service Family

Service (in shorts and dark glasses) and other Americans get briefing by guerrilla leader Lin Biao, who died in 1971 after failed coup plot.
Courtesy Service Family

Navy Lt. Herbert Hitch, Ray Ludden,, Col. Barrett, Zhou Enlai and John Service shortly after Yenan arrival in July, 1944
Courtesy Service Family

Members of Dixie Mission pose in homespun suits-gifts from their Communist hosts in Yenan. The photo later provided ammunition for McCarthy’s anti-Communist witch-hunt.
Courtesy Service Family

Zhou Enlai, Mao and Amb. Hurley arrive in Chungking for peace talks, August 1945.
Courtesy Service Family

Mao and Chiang, the bitter enemies, toast to peace.
US Naval Institute Photo Archive

This map was given to Service to show officials in Washington that Mao’s guerrillas were ready and willing to cooperate with American forces against the Japanese–and had useful intell on enemy.