Pic of the Week: Justification for Observer Mission to Yan'an

"Lovers & Comrades" took ten years to write. As part of my historical research, I found a number of treasures. Shown here is a January 1944 memo with the name "John Davis" at the bottom. It makes the case for sending a U.S. military observer mission to the mountainous Chinese Communist outpost, Yan'an.

For ready access to film footage of pre-Revolutionary China (keep the volume muted to avoid the dripping propaganda and racism), two sources are the first half of the U.S. Navy's "Red Chinese Battle Plan," and "China: The Roots of Madness," National Archives and Records Administration.