20 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY october 12-18, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com more meaningful when it comes to China’s international relations strategy. “We are committed to working with the U.S. to explore the right way to get along with each other as two major countries, and China has always supported and encouraged people-to-people exchanges between the two countries,” Liu adds. Xi and President Joe Biden met last year in Bali. Even as they disagreed about issues such as Chinese aggression in Taiwan, the White House’s official report of that meeting emphasizes the importance of interpersonal relationships, something both world leaders agreed with: “[Biden and Xi] also noted the importance of ties between the people of the United States and the People’s Republic of China.” According to Chang, China’s leadership sees the diplomatic cold shoulder from the U.S. as both unnecessary and frustrating. People’s diplomacy—which includes visits with those considered friends, such as Henry Kissinger and Bill Gates—is a way to build alliances, one small group at a time. Stilwell is crucial as a foundation for this type of diplomatic engagement. He fought alongside Chinese forces. He worked with the communist forces and contributed to the nation’s war effort. “The [Chinese Communist Party] leadership is aware of its limited appeal in other parts of the world,” Chang explains. “Seen from this perspective, it is obvious that the Chinese government would engage positively and enthusiastically with Stilwell’s descendants.” The general and his wife, Winifred, had chosen a bright Sunday morning to entertain junior officers newly posted to Fort Ord, where Stilwell served as commander of the 7th Infantry Division. The couple welcomed the group to their home in Carmel. And the day was nice enough that doors to the garden were left open, allowing the outside to flow in. It was Dec. 7, 1941. In her Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911-1945, historian Barbara Tuchman describes the hasty scramble to plug in a radio after a phone call alerted them to the attack on Pearl Harbor, followed by the stunned consternation. “The realization flooded over them: out there, on the immense ocean beyond the window, war had begun,” Tuchman wrote. Although initially tapped to lead the invasion of North Africa, Stilwell was instead sent to China to serve as military attaché to nationalist head Chiang Kai-shek, as well as commander of the China-Burma-India theater of operations. It was a proper choice, considering his background. Stilwell served three tours in China between the World Wars, using that time to become familiar with the armies, the people and the language. But it was a post many considered a backwater. During World War II, Stilwell would not lead large armies. He spent more time cajoling, trying to keep up resistance while balancing the political whims of the British, the divided nationalist and communist armies, as well as his own government with the limited supplies at hand. He was removed from command—Stilwell was famously unimpressed by Chiang and his corrupt regime, dismissing him in private correspondence as “peanut”— and sent home a year before war in the Pacific came to an end. Yet Stilwell became one of the war’s most notable figures. When he returned to Carmel in 1944 awaiting reassignment, Life magazine devoted several pages to a photo essay on the general and his dog, Gary, at play on Carmel Beach. His public stature grew, even in defeat. Following a disastrous 1942 campaign in Burma that saw him lead a lengthy retreat over difficult terrain, Stilwell famously told reporters, “I claim we got a hell of a beating. We got run out of Burma, and it’s humiliating as hell. I think we ought to find out what caused it, go back and retake the place.” “His words to the press after the walkout were blunt and straightforward,” Easterbrook observes. “Here was a guy who was telling the truth. It resonated with the public.” Stilwell’s acerbic honesty earned him the nickname “Vinegar Joe.” But his care for the rank and file brought him a very different sobriquet: “Uncle Joe.” Stilwell was responsible for installing a soldier’s club—reputedly with the longest bar in California—for enlisted men at Fort Ord. Even after the war, while in charge of the Presidio in San Francisco, the general would drop by to check on the facility, later known as Stilwell Hall. In the field, he cared little for the ceremony accorded to officers and would carry a rifle alongside the men. He also had great respect for the ability of Chinese soldiers when under competent command. He helped initiate the effort to reach out to communist forces and constantly urged Washington to shift more equipment and other forms of support away from Chiang and to the Red Army, later known as the People’s Liberation Army. Stilwell died in 1946 from cancer, while still on active duty. Upon hearing the news, the Chinese general responsible for organizing communist forces, Zhu De, honored him as a great general and great friend to the Chinese people. During the recent ceremony hosted by China in Chongqing, Stilwell’s great-granddaughters joined with Zhu’s great-grandaughter and great-grandson to plant a friendship tree at the museum dedicated to Stilwell’s time in China. Markers celebrating Stilwell’s legacy are less impressive on this side of the Pacific. Stilwell Hall is gone, but there’s a community center, a park, an elementary school and the like that bear his name. A plaque, mounted on a stone at the foot of the driveway, announces the historic significance of Stilwell’s former Carmel residence to passersby. “A soldier without peer who never deviated in his absolute dedication to the United States of America,” it reads. “He was always talking about getting back to Carmel,” Easterbrook observes. “He could take out his frustrations on the bushes and trees. He could be a regular guy. There are all these references to Carmel in his diaries.” (When they spoke in Chongqing, “It is obvious that the Chinese government would engage positively and enthusiastically with Stilwell’s descendants.” The Stilwell family home on Carmel Point. A private residence, it is still marked with a plaque indicating its historic significance. Daniel Dreifuss
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