The American military and naval attachés and the Sino-Japanese War : 1937-38

The purpose of this study is to provide a measure of insight into the perceptual change of the American Military and Naval attachés toward the Sino-Japanese War in 1937-38. By examining the intelligence reports of the military and naval attachés in the field in China during this period a further understanding of the evolution of American policy toward the two combatant nations will be realized. Reliance is placed upon the Records of the Department of State, the Office of Naval Intelligence, the Military Intelligence Division, the Franklin Roosevelt Papers, and the papers of the Ambassador to China, Nelson T. Johnson, to show the attitudes of the attaché groups toward the East Asian War.

By August of 1938, both the Military and Naval attaché groups came to agree that the Japanese could not win the war with China. The efforts of these men were, on the whole, competent and professional. In the opinion of the author, they provided a timely and realistic picture of the military and often political situations in wartime China. Each group evaluated the conflict in terms, military doctrines, and philosophies of its respective service. The military attachés chose to concentrate on the more traditional elements of warfare: General and Divisional Staff operations whereas the Navy-Marine Corps personnel tended to focus on irregular and guerrilla warfare efforts. The two attaché groups perceptions of the war, when taken together, offer an unusual and valuable insight into the nature of the war.

The impact of the intelligence data provided by these attaché units on military, naval, and foreign policy decisions has not yet been assessed. Further study of the interaction between the intelligence and war plans divisions of both the Army and Navy, the Department of State, the president and his close advisors is necessary to understand the importance of the work of the attaché groups in the formulation of American-East Asian policy in the years before Pearl Harbor.