China Hands
Melby was recalled to Washington and left China on December 15, 1948, as the communists were winning control. On instructions from his State Department superiors, he produced an analysis of the communist revolution in China and, with Charles Yost became a principal author of an influential study known as the "China White Paper" (1949). He held the view that Chiang and the Nationalists were responsible for the communist victory in China and privately criticized those who shared this belief, but surrendered to the interpretation of the pro-Chiang China Lobby in the U.S. and blamed the communists' success on the U.S. government and especially, on the State Department's China Hands. Because Melby's role in authoring the "White Paper" was not publicized, he escaped the criticism it received from the China Lobby.