Chapter 171 Dai Li and the US military delegation

Fear of conspiracy also influenced U.S. policy toward wartime China.During the final year of the war, OSS presented General Dunovan with a plan to arm Chinese Communist guerrillas in Yenan to fight the Japanese.Colonel David Barrett was ordered to present this proposal to Mao.OSS chief in China, Heppner, had his deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Willis G. Bird, send the program to Yenan.Lieutenant Colonel Bader and Colonel Barrett arrived in Yan'an on December 15, 1944 as commanders of the US military delegation.Not long after, Dai Li heard about this, so Melles prepared to report this secret contact to American Ambassador Hurley when he visited Geleshan in January 1945.

Ambassador Hurley received a grand welcome during his visit to SACO.At the banquet hosted by Dai Li for the ambassador, Melles convinced the oilman from Oklahoma that the US State Department was planning a huge conspiracy to provide troops and weapons to the Chinese Communist Party.Melles also offered to provide the ambassador with a direct radio link between SACO's navy and Washington to bypass the embassy in Chungking, which they believed to be infiltrated by pro-Communists bent on defeating Chiang Kai-shek. On January 15, 1945, Hurley reported to President Roosevelt that he had heard from SACO and Dai Li that there was a plan to use American paratroopers to lead the way for the Communist guerrillas.In the ambassador's view, this increased recognition of the Communists and endorsed their goal of destroying the Nationalist government.Hurley's further attacks on the "China experts" of the State Council's Foreign Affairs Office who advocated a neutral policy between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party heralded the coming of the Cold War.According to OSS historian Robert Smith:

At the same time, General Wedemeyer ordered all officials in the Chinese theater not to assist, consult, or cooperate with Chinese political parties under any circumstances.