With great courage, inexhaustible patience and amazing wisdom, Chiang Kai-shek began his program of reconstruction and rehabilitation. He little realized that his three great Allies—Russia, England and the United States—had plotted behind his back to snatch from his hands, in his moment of victory, the one area that could change China from a backward agricultural country into a modern and powerful nation. Without Manchuria Chiang was lost. This was the juicy bone that first the Japanese, then the Communists or the Generalissimo had to have to complete their growth as a modern power. Without it each would be rendered impotent. Chiang Kai-shek had fought for eight years to prevent the spread of Japanese totalitarianism in China. Now he was confronted with a much more vicious brand, Communist totalitarianism. He commented, “The Japanese were a disease of the skin. The Communists are a disease of the bone.” Many people wonder why the Nationalist Armies were so ineffective and why so many of them went over to the Communists without even putting up a fight. Certainly the bulk of the Chinese are not disposed to Communism. They just want an opportunity to feed, clothe and shelter their families. Most of them do not understand Communism or any other political philosophy. Some accepted the new leadership through sheer inertia. Some of them leaned toward it in protest against stupid and oppressive government police measures, corrupt practices and bad administration. Squeeze, or graft as we call it, was never a crime in China. The Chinese people have no sense of political right or wrong, no convictions about political truths as the Western world recognizes them. As one Chinese General put it, “To take from the government is no crime.” Indeed the principal weakness of the Generalissimo was the very fact that he surrounded himself with men who did not hesitate to take all they could get from the government. Chiang showed the same loyalty to those who surrounded him and supported him, including members of his own and his wife’s families, as President Truman, for instance, has demonstrated in his loyalty to the Pendergast machine and others who have done his bidding. The Generalissimo’s honesty and personal integrity have never been questioned by those who know him best, and who were in constant association with him during the Japanese war. General Wedemeyer has attested to this statement and he was the American Chief of Staff to Chiang Kai-shek and knew him intimately. For us to say his Nationalist Government was corrupt and deserved to fall, amounts to the pot calling the kettle black. Such a situation exists today in Washington, D. C.