Claire Chennault
Claire Chennault (1890-1958 ), was an Americans military pilot and leader of the "Flying Tigers" in World War II, an American operation that aided China.
Career
Flying Tigers
Chennault was listened to by Chiank Kai-shek, who disregarded the advice of his chief of staff Joeseph Warren Stilwell. Stillwell wanted to build up large infantry forces to attack China. Chiang realized theat fighting the Japanese with his numerous but underequipped and poorly led and motivated army was hopeless. He wanted American funds to feed his soldiers and prop up the government, so that it cvould later fight Mao Zedong and the Communists who were building up a base in northern China. Chennault believed that air power would defeat the Japanese, and he succeeded in building up a strategic air force built around very long range B-29 bombers, whose supplies were brought in "over the Hump from India. It took 50 gallons of gasoline to deliver one gallon the B-29 could use. Raids did begin and they were ineffective. The Japanese response was to use its ground army to overrun Chennault's airfields. The B-29's were moved to the Pacific.
Postwar
In August 1950, the CIA secretly purchased the assets of Civil Air Transport (CAT), an airline that had been started in China after 1945 by Chennault and Whiting Willauer.
Image, memory and controversy
Chennault (and his widow Anna) were unusually effecting in creating favorable publicity in the U.S. They were especially championed by the "China Lobby" and the conservative wing of the Republican party who denounced President Truman and George Marshall for "losing" the friendship and support of China by not adequately supporting Chiang.
Bibliography
- Byrd, Martha. Chennault: Giving Wings to the Tiger (1987) 451 pp., the standard biography
- Ford, Daniel. Flying Tigers: Claire Chennault and the American Volunteer Group (1991).
- Xu, Guangqiu. "The Issue of U.S. Air Support for China During the Second World War, 1942–1945," Journal of Contemporary History 36 (July 2001): 459–84.
- Xu, Guangqiu. War Wings: The United States and Chinese Military Aviation, 1929–1949 (2001).
Primary Sources
- Chennault, Anna. Chennault and the Flying Tigers. (1963).
- Chennault, Claire Lee. Way of a Fighter: The Memoirs of Claire Lee Chennault. ed. by Robert Horz. (1949.
- Klinkowitz, Jerome. With the Tigers Over China, 1941–1942 (1999).