page_title: Dixie Mission
section_title: Origin
hierarchical_section_title: Dixie Mission / Origin
caption_attribution_description: English: A scan of John Paton Davies's Jan 15th Memo on the formation of the Dixie Mission. Created by RebelAt from original copy at the National Archives II, at College Park, Maryland.
context_page_description: The United States Army Observation Group, commonly known as the Dixie Mission, was the first US effort to establish official relations with the Communist Party of China and the People's Liberation Army, then headquartered in the mountainous city of Yan'an. The mission was launched on 22 July 1944, during World War II, and lasted until 11 March 1947.
  In addition to establishing relations, the goals were to investigate the Communists politically and militarily and determine if the US would benefit from establishing liaison. John S. Service, of the US Department of State, was responsible for political analysis, and Colonel David D. Barrett, of the US Army, performed the military analysis. Initially, they reported that the Chinese Communists might be a useful wartime and postwar ally and that the atmosphere in Yan'an was more energetic and less corrupt than in Nationalist-held areas After the war, the Dixie Mission's reports and Service and Barrett were condemned by pro-Kuomingtang factions in the American government and fell victim to McCarthyism. Service was fired from his position at the State Department, and Barrett was denied a promotion to brigadier general.
context_section_description: Prior to the Dixie Mission, the US considered military interventions into Communist-held China, such as an unimplemented idea of the Office of Strategic Services to send agents into northern China. The Dixie Mission began, according to John Paton Davies, Jr.'s memo, on 15 January 1944. Davies, a Foreign Service Officer who was serving in the China Burma India Theater (CBI), called for the establishment of an observers' mission in Communist territory. Davies argued that the Communists offered attractive strategic benefits in the fight against Japan and that
  the more the US ignored them, the closer that Yan'an, the capital of Communist-held China, would move to Moscow. With the support of Davies' superior, General Joseph Stilwell, the memorandum successfully convinced the administration of US President Franklin D. Roosevelt to put the plan into motion.
  The Roosevelt administration asked Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek for permission to send US observers to visit the Communists. Initially, Chiang was hostile to the proposal and delayed action. He consented after foreign correspondents whom he had permitted to visit Yan'an reported on the Communists to US readers. Chiang agreed after American Vice-President Henry A. Wallace made a state visit to Chungking, the Nationalists' capital, in late June 1944. John Carter Vincent, an experienced State Department China expert, assisted Wallace in persuading Chiang to allow the US to visit the Communists in Yan'an without Nationalist supervision. In exchange, the US promised to replace the American commander of the Burma India Theater, General Stilwell, who was removed from command in October 1944.
caption: Davies' 15 January Memo
exif: {}