Stilwell, Joseph

Stilwell, Joseph (1883–1946), World War II general.Born in Palatka, Florida, and graduating from West Point in 1904, Joseph Warren Stilwell was assigned first to the Philippines, beginning an army career that would be closely associated with Asia. An intelligence officer during World War I, Stilwell then assumed a series of assignments in China, including U.S. military attaché (1935–1939) during the Sino‐Japanese War. He was promoted to brigadier general in 1939 and general in 1944.

Fluent in Chinese and highly regarded by Army Chief of Staff George Marshall, Stilwell was appointed commander of the China‐Burma‐India theater in 1942. Allotted minimal resources, Stilwell pressed Chinese leader Chiang Kai‐shek to build an effective military force to counter Japanese advances in China and Burma. His relationship with Chiang soured, however, because of his caustic manner (hence his nickname “Vinegar Joe”) and Chiang's unwillingness to reform the corrupt and poorly led Chinese armies. Stilwell proved unable to use Chinese troops to halt the Japanese conquest of northern Burma in 1942, which cut the only viable land link between China and India. Two years later, however, relying largely on American‐trained Chinese troops, he recaptured much of northern Burma, making possible the reopening of the Burma Road, constructed under his supervision.

Recalled to Washington by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in October 1944 at Chiang's behest, Stilwell became commander of army ground forces. He commanded the U.S. Tenth Army in the final stages of the Okinawa campaign (June 1945) and would have led this force in an invasion of Japan had not the Japanese surrendered in August 1945.

Bibliography

Barbara W. Tuchman , Stilwell and the American Experience in China, 1911–1945, 1970.
Eric Larrabee , Commander in Chief: Franklin Delano Roosevelt, His Lieutenants, and Their War, 1987.

G. Kurt Piehler