ABSTRACT
The communists often credited the Americans with whom they came into contact with good intentions, but became increasingly disturbed by the contradiction between us mediation and us aid to Chiang. The communists themselves appear to have had differences of opinion over the degree to which the Americans could be trusted. This was certainly the view of many officials on the mediation mission who had close contacts with their communist colleagues. In the short term, American military intervention in post-war China was designed to restore Nationalist control over areas which either already had or would have been liberated by the Communists and their guerrilla supporters. Refusing to admit the contradiction between American aid and mediation, Marshall was quick to take offence at communist criticisms of American policy, until by the time he left China their ‘vicious propaganda’ had become an obsessive element in his judgment of the situation.
