The Price of Dependence: The Deleterious Effects of the Chinese Nationalists' Reliance on United States Aid, 1945-1949

Abstract

This theses is an analysis on some aspects of the United States aid given to the Chinese Nationalists. The time frame it focuses on are the end years, 1945-1949, of the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalists and the Chinese Communist Party. Previous literature on the subject tend to frame the Nationalists as incapable of properly using given U.S. aid and uses that ineptitude as justification for lessening U.S. involvement with the Nationalists. In similar veins, the counter view was that the amount of given aid was pitiful and unable to truly help the Nationalists stabilize its regime following the devastation of World War II. Instead, my theses questions the framing of U.S. aid being entirely positive to the Nationalist regime. It examines some of the negative impacts of U.S. aid on the Nationalist military and its actions. It also focuses on the consequences of U.S. presence on the Chinese social landscape and the diplomatic implications of closer relations with the U.S. vis-�-vis the Soviet Union and the Chinese Communists. Lastly, it covers the effects of expedited Japanese repatriation demanded by the United States on the Nationalist regime. From examining these conditions, there were clear examples where U.S. aid was not at all beneficial to the Nationalist government and weakened its position in China.