Chapter 144 Wedemeyer's concerns

Wedemeyer, after succeeding Joseph Stilwell as U.S. commander in the China theater, was particularly concerned about the Ninth Squad's secret police training program.In a tense meeting with Dai Li, Wedemeyer told Dai Li that he was very concerned about "using American manpower and equipment for political organization." Dai Li replied that the Bureau of Military Statistics under the National Military Commission was different from the Central Bureau of Statistics under the KMT Central Committee: the latter was mainly concerned with domestic political security, while the former was engaged in wartime covert activities.For this reason, Dai Li said, all the assets of SACO were used in the anti-Japanese war, except for the indirect use of "the Ninth Training Class under the leadership of the Navy Group".

But Wedemeyer firmly insisted: what he meant was that he "does not want any American personnel or military equipment in the Chinese theater to be used for political organization."Wedemeyer and his staff also challenged Dai Li's assertion that Juntong was committed to military goals.When Lieutenant Colonel Agnew, representing Wedemeyer's G-2, asked "Is the killing of traitors political or military in nature", General Dai said that it was of a military nature because it directly affected the anti-Japanese operations; but Wedemeyer disagreed : "I'm afraid this is political, unless a clear distinction can be made between treating Japan and the Communist Party."

In other words, unless Dai Li could prove that the communists murdered by the Juntong killers were serving the Japanese, this act of terrorism was being used against Chiang's internal enemies for political purposes.In this regard, Wedemeyer stated more clearly that "he does not agree with the American involvement in any action to kill or punish the Chinese".Dai Li simply replied, "No American would be asked to do that; their job is to train the Chinese to do it." They did train the men, though Mellas knew the State Department objected.In fact, the Sino-U.S. cooperation training class not only continues to train graduates, but according to Article 17 of the joint agreement, the U.S. Navy also agrees to send 40 students carefully selected by Dai Li to study in the U.S. and provide them with Basic necessities of life, housing, transportation and tuition fees.Needless to say, this plan was not implemented until after the surrender of Japan.

For the first time in history, U.S. special operations officers trained police officers in intelligence gathering have been accused of collusion with a right-wing dictatorship.In this sense, SACO's program to train covert agents under Dai Li made the efforts of wartime American intelligence agencies a straight-up crime. "Since Dai Li's many responsibilities also include Chiang's military intelligence chief, some technical cooperation with him is inevitable. However, SACO seems to go far beyond that. Dai Li was quick to take advantage of the U.S. weapons were airlifted to Geleshan to fight the New Fourth Army and other patriotic guerrillas. And the people in Melos were trying to smear Dai Li’s political reputation.”