American policy vs. Asian Revolution: SWNCC recommendations regarding post-World War II: China, Korea, and Vietnam

omentous decisions in Washington at the end of World War II defined the Allied terms of surrender for Japanese-occupied East and Southeast Asia. This dissertation utilizes records from the State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee (SWNCC), an interdepartmental group charged with the task of postwar planning, to analyze the impact of these decisions on the nations liberated from Japan. Within eighteen months of the Japanese surrender, civil war erupted in China; a stalemate between the superpowers reinforced the division of Korea; and the French and Vietminh opened an eight-year war to control Vietnam.;SWNCC had been established at the end of 1944 to reconcile differences between Roosevelt administration officials who faced the prospect of victory in the Pacific with no definite plans for the areas occupied by Japanese armies. The controversy over colonialism had not been resolved by the Allies and Roosevelt emphatically postponed all decisions on this sensitive issue until after the war. A new President in April 1945, the defeat of Germany one month later, and the prospect of using an atomic bomb against Japan exacerbated tensions in Washington about the postwar settlement. During frantic meetings at the Pentagon after Tokyo's offer to surrender on August 10, SWNCC prepared the Truman administration's response to Tokyo in General Order ;This impromptu demarcation of Asian boundaries clashed with the goals of nationalist revolutionaries in China, Korea, and Vietnam who rushed to proclaim their independence after August 14. Chinese Communists challenged Chiang Kai-shek's exclusive right to disarm and repatriate the Japanese in northeast China. Korean nationalists faced a dual occupation by Soviet and American authorities that compounded the confusion and chaos among rival political groups that had been forced to operate in exile during the war. Ho Chi Minh established the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) the same day Japan surrendered, but was immediately confronted by British troops who occupied southern Vietnam on behalf of French colonial officials.;The end of World War II brought no peace to East or Southeast Asia. Policy directives coordinated by the SWNCC to promote stability in the areas liberated from Japan contributed to the outbreak of violence in China, Korea, and Vietnam within eighteen months of the Japanese surrender. Failed negotiations in 1946 led to armed confrontation against the Allied terms of surrender in General Order...