The Letters and Diaries of Colonel John Hart Caughey, 1944–1945 The Letters and Diaries of Colonel John Hart Caughey, 1944–1945 With Wedemeyer in World War II China Edited by Roger B. Jeans LEXINGTON BOOKS Lanham • Boulder • New York • London Published by Lexington Books An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB Copyright © 2018 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Available ISBN 978-1-4985-7497-6 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN 978-1-4985-7498-3 (electronic) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America For Sylvia, with love and gratitude Contents Illustrations ix Acknowledgments xi Note on Romanization xiii List of Abbreviations xv Chronology xvii Maps xxi Introduction xxv Part 1 The China Theater under General Albert C. Wedemeyer, 1944–1945 1 Part 2 War Planner for Wedemeyer: John Hart Caughey and the “Asiatic Operations Division,” 1944–45 29 Part 3 The Letters of John Hart Caughey, November 1944 to November 1945 89 Part 4 The Diary of John Hart Caughey, January to November 1945 175 Bibliography 209 Index 217 About the Editor 229 vii Illustrations Map 1. China. Map 2. The Japanese Ichigo offensive. Map 3. Burma, 1944–1945. Figure 1. Lord Louis Mountbatten, new commander in chief of the Southeast Asia Command (SEAC), welcomed to Washington by Caughey, who served as the admiral’s aide during his visit, August 1943. Figure 2. Caughey at Orly airport in Paris on his way to Kandy, Ceylon, to serve in SEAC, September 1944. Figure 3. Wedemeyer arrives in Chungking and is met by He Yingqin, commander in chief of the Chinese Nationalist Army, U.S. Special Representative Patrick J. Hurley, and other notables, October 1944. Figure 4. Wedemeyer, India-Burma Theater commander Daniel I. Sultan, SEAC commander Lord Louis Mountbatten, and OSS head William J. Donovan confer in Myitkyina, Burma, January 1945. Figure 5. Wedemeyer presides over a Chinese-American military staff conference at China Theater Headquarters, Chungking, 1945. Figure 6. Caughey and his jeep in Chungking, February 1945. Figure 7. Caughey awarded the Legion of Merit, Chungking, February 1945. ix