ABSTRACT
World War II, the ebb and flow of battle, provides the general analytical context for an interpretation of the course of events in China. The war itself after the German attack on the Soviet Union and the Japanese attack on the United States may be divided into three basic periods: the strategic defensive; the turning point and the final counteroffensive. One of the major problems facing Soviet leaders after the German attack had begun on June 22, 1941 was the logistical one. The German attack on the Soviet Union changed the picture considerably for Chiang Kai-shek. In Europe, Germany's desperate gamble to knock the Soviet Union out of the war failed at Kursk-Orel, and Soviet forces promptly developed a sustained counteroffensive on the eastern front. The essence of Roosevelt's plan was the establishment of a Soviet-American axis around which a stable, harmonious world could be built.
