Includes bibliographical references (pages 237-252) and index.
The failure of mediation : the Hurley and Marshall missions -- The battle lines are drawn : U.S. contention with the CCP to win the middle forces, 1947 -- The middle forces in China's urban turmoil, 1947 -- The battle for the middle forces peaks : the domestic factors, 1947-48 -- The battle for the middle forces peaks : the international factor, 1947-48--Japan -- America's loss : clearing the battlefield--and parting shots, 1948-49.
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"The pivotal years in the Chinese civil war, 1947-8, found America locked in battle with the Communist Party for the allegiance of China's democratic middle forces. The stakes were high for both sides. As the clouds of the Cold War gathered, the United States needed the liberals to provide legitimacy to Chiang Kai-shek's increasingly discredited - but staunchly anti-Communist - Nationalist government; on the other side, the rural-based Communists needed to ally with the urban-centered democrats so that the revolution could advance from the countryside to the cities. In the polarized atmosphere then engulfing China, whoever lost the battle for the middle forces would endure political isolation - and, ultimately, face defeat." "China's Inevitable Revolution explores this tumultuous and decisive battle. It tells the story of violent repression and virulent protest in urban China. By giving voice to the middle forces, it reveals how America's fixation with containing communism led in China to the constraining of democracy. In so doing, it demonstrates how America alienated the very democratic forces on which it pinned its hopes, thereby, ironically, contributing to the Communist victory."--Jacket.