The Communist conquest of China has been the topic of a heated American debate. This debate has been concerned mainly with American politics, and has often been based more on opinion than on knowledge and has dealt more with political argument than with historical fact. The result has been a good deal of confusion and of misinformation, which is always hard to eradicate. However, as we gain more perspective on the events of the Chinese tragedy, it is becoming possible to reconstruct the basic story of the fall of China.

This story cannot be understood merely by tracing Chinese postwar developments: the moves of the Chinese Communists, the obvious weaknesses of the National government, the question of American support to the Nationalist side, and of aid given by the Russians to their fellow Communists. These developments have to be seen against the double background of world Communism and the modern history of China. The Communist victory in China is but one case of a worldwide struggle, the special problems of which must be examined within the setting of the Communist system, its general aims, its strategy and tactics, its use of dogma, and its inner conflicts.