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Joseph Stilwell

Surname Stilwell Given Name Joseph Born 19 Mar 1883 Died 12 Oct 1946 Country United States Category Military-Ground Gender Male

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseJoseph Warren Stilwell was born in Palatka, Florida, United States to Benjamin Stilwell, a businessman who held a law degree and a medical doctor degree. His mother was Mary Peene, daughter of the founder of Ben Franklin Shipping Lines. In his youth he had spent time in Florida as well as Yonkers, New York, United States. He was commissioned in the infantry in the Philippine Islands after graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in the state of New York in 1904, and again served in the Philippine Islands in 1912. During WW1, he served as the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence in IV Corps of the American Expeditionary Forces. During the interwar years, he served three times in China, which allowed him to speak Chinese with fair fluency. A natural linguist, he also had understanding of French, Spanish, and Japanese languages; in his short tenure as an instructor at West Point, he taught some of those languages. In the 1930s, as the Japanese military increasingly violated Chinese soverignty, he was also given the opportunity to observe various tactics that the Japanese Army employed. His third posting to China was perhaps his most important one in his career, during which he was the military attaché of the US Legation in Beiping (now Beijing) in northern China between 1935 and 1940; during this tenure he met Chiang Kaishek in Dec 1938. In between his tours of duty in China, he also held several staff officer positions in the United States where he served with future WW2 leaders such as George Marshall and Omar Bradley. As an instructor at the Infantry School at Fort Benning in Georgia, United States, one of his students drew a cartoon of Stilwell rising out of a vinegar bottle, portraying his sore personality, and the name "Vinegar Joe" stuck with him for the rest of his career. He was indeed a bitter person, and would stingingly coin malicious nicknames for men he did not favor behind their backs. He was known to call President Franklin Roosevelt "Rubber Legs", for example, mocking Roosevelt's physical disability. The most well known of these nicknames was "Peanut" for Chiang, for that Stilwell mistook Chiang's distinctly Chinese style of leadership for lack of ability.

ww2dbaseBetween 1940 and 1941, Stilwell was the commanding officer of the 7th Division at Ford Ord, California, United States. He was a cinephile; even in the confusing month of Dec 1941 as a commander in the Los Angeles area he watched Walt Disney's animated feature "Dumbo" twice.

ww2dbaseWith the rank of lieutenant general, Stilwell returned to Asia as the commander of the American Army Forces of the China-Burma-India (CBI) Theater. Arriving in 25 Feb 1942 in India to fill this capacity, he was faced with the challenge of dealing with well-entrenched Japanese forces in Burma, Siam, Malaya, and Indochina. In a surprising move, he successfully negotiated with Chiang for control over the Chinese forces, and created a nominally integrated Chinese-American army. He did run into frustrations when issuing orders Chinese units, however, as divisional commanders often would not obey his orders without re-confirming with Chiang first, a bureaucracy that Chiang purposefully implemented to keep western influence in check. This, plus other experiences he had, led to Stilwell's dislike for the Chinese leadership, which he described as "oily politicians... treacherous quitters, selfish, conscienceless, unprincipled crooks". This dislike for Chinese leaders was generally recipricated, for that the Chinese viewed Stilwell as the epitomy of western arrogance, as one who suffered from the white savior attitude typical of the colonial era. Chiang, for example, more than once complained to US leaders of Stilwell's "recklessness, insubordination, contempt and arrogance". Stilwell not only clashed with the Chinese, but his confrontational attitude brought disharmony with westerners as well. General George Giffard of the British 11th Army Group who went as far as suggesting that the Northern Combat Area Command (NCAC) should be transferred from Stilwell to Supreme Allied Command, for that Stilwell could not maintain an effective working relationship with the British. Claire Chennault, a US general who was able to work closely with Chiang, also disliked Stilwell.

ww2dbaseAs the Supreme Allied Commander of the China-Burma-India Theater (CBI Theater), Stilwell held three roles simultaneously:

Chief of Staff to Chiang Kaishek in Chongqing, China

Deputy Allied Supreme Commander at Kandy, Ceylon

Commander of the NCAC in northern Burma

ww2dbaseOn 24 Feb 1944 Stilwell launched a campaign to regain Burma. Brigadier General Frank Merrill was placed in command of the 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional), also known as Merrill's Marauders, and successfully gained control of the Hakawing Valley, paving way to regaining the valuable airfields at Myitkyina and later reopening the supply routes into China.

ww2dbaseDuring this time in China, Stilwell was accused of nepotism for that he had assigned his son, Colonel Joseph Stilwell, to serve as his head of intelligence, while two sons-in-law were his liaisons with various Chinese military commands.

ww2dbaseIn Oct 1944, his disagreements with Chiang reached a critical level, resulting in his removal from the CBI Theater as recommended by Patrick Hurley and approved by Roosevelt. Three generals were needed to take over the three roles that Stilwell held. US Army Chief of Staff Marshall, though disappointed in Stilwell's failure in working with foreign allies, still regarded his leadership capabilities highly, thus chose to place Stilwell in command of the Tenth Army for the final stages of the Battle of Okinawa.

ww2dbaseIn Harold Alexander's 1961 memoirs, the former British general commented on Stilwell's leadership:

I don't think that Stilwell had much of an opinion of us British, but personally he and I got on well together. I always felt that he disliked his position with the Chinese: he was a very senior American general and probably had the feeling that he ought to have been playing a greater part in the war, instead of being relegated to a backwater.... Certainly, in those dark days he was no defeatist; on the contrary, he showed great courage and fight. When the campaign collapsed he found his way back to India through the jungle on foot, having done all he could for his Chinese forces.

ww2dbaseWilliam Slim also regarded Stilwell highly despite Stilwell's known bias against the British, noting:

He was not a great soldier in the highest sense, but he was a real leader in the field; no one else I know could have made his Chinese do what they did. He was, undoubtedly, the most colourful character in South East Asia - and I liked him.

ww2dbaseAlan Brooke, however, thought little of Stilwell:

[Although Stilwell] was a stouthearted fighter, suitable to lead a brigade of Chinese scallywags, I could see no qualities in him. He was a Chinese linguist, but had little military knowledge and no strategic ability of any kind. His worst failing, however, was his deep rooted hatred of anybody or anything British! It was practically impossible to establish friendly relationship with either him or the troops under his command. He did a vast amount of harm by vitiating the relations between America and British both in India and Burma.

ww2dbaseStilwell passed away in 1946 after surgery to remove stomach cancer. His ashes were scattered over the Pacific Ocean.

ww2dbaseSources:

Frank McLynn, The Burma Campaign

Joseph Persico, Roosevelt's Centurions

Nathan Prefer, Vinegar Joe's War

Wikipedia

Last Major Revision: Oct 2005

Joseph Stilwell Timeline

Photographs

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