The China Mission: George Marshall''s Unfinished War, 1945-1947

At the end of World War II, General George Marshall took on what he thought was a final missionthis time not to win a war, but to stop one. In China, conflict between Communists and Nationalists threatened to suck in the United States and escalate into revolution. Marshalls charge was to cross the Pacific, broker a peace, and prevent a Communist takeover, all while staving off World War III. At first, the results seemed miraculous. But as they started to come apart, Marshall was faced with a wrenching choiceone that would alter the course of the Cold War, define the US-China relationship, and spark one of the darkest-ever turns in American political life.

The China Mission offers a gripping, close-up view of the central figures of the timefrom Marshall, Mao, and Chiang Kai-shek to Eisenhower, Truman, and MacArthuras they stood face-to-face and struggled to make history, with consequences and lessons that echo today.