ABSTRACT
The "civil war" in China was the consequence of a National-Communist failure to reach a political settlement. In the ensuing all-out military conflict from mid-1946, decisions made by Soviet and American leaders critically affected the course of battle. The Soviet withdrawal and the Chinese Communist move came at a time when the Kuomintang Central Executive Committee was in session. From mid-1946, the Soviet Union assiduously undertook to strengthen the Chinese Communist position in Manchuria. Soviet personnel operated the rail and river systems for the Chinese Communists, while Soviet crews repaired damaged rail and river equipment and trained the Chinese Communists in their use and maintenance. The agreements made between the Soviet Union and the United States during World War II at Tehran and Yalta were designed to establish the postwar balance of power in the emerging bipolar international structure. The Soviet Union constructed the logistical base necessary to support an all-out, conventional war with the Nationalists.
