Wedemeyer, Lt-General Albert C.

Wedemeyer, Lt-General Albert C. (1897–1989),US Army officer who succeeded Stilwell as Chiang Kai-shek's Allied Chief of Staff.

The grandson of a German emigrant, Wedemeyer served in China during the early 1930s and learned the language. In the spring of 1941 he started work in the War Plans Division (later Operations Division) under Eisenhower and became the principal author of the Victory Program, a comprehensive study of what manpower and matériel resources would be needed to defeat the Axis powers. Wedemeyer calculated that, after the needs of industry, civilian life, and the other services had been satisfied, a maximum of 8,795,658 men could be mobilized for the army. This proved close to the numbers actually mobilized (8,291,236 men as at 31 May 1945, including US Army Air Forces personnel). But it did not prove practicable to raise the 213 divisions he calculated were necessary, and the 90 that were raised proved barely sufficient.

Rapid promotion followed—from major to brigadier-general in just over a year—and as a war plans expert he accompanied the army chief of staff, General Marshall, to most of the Allied conferences (see also Grand Alliance). After being promoted maj-general in September 1943 he became Mountbatten's deputy chief of staff at South-East Asia Command, heading the unsuccessful Axiom Mission and wrestling with the problems this theatre continually generated. In October 1944 he became Chiang Kai-shek's Allied Chief of Staff, commander of US Army forces in China (mostly military advisers) and the administrator of US aid to China, difficult tasks to which Wedemeyer, with his tact and firmness, was better suited than Stilwell. He was promoted lt-general in January 1945 and continued in his post until April 1946, dealing primarily with the repatriation of Japanese troops and civilians. He retired in 1951 and was promoted four-star general three years later.

Bibliography

Wedemeyer, A. , Wedemeyer Reports! (New York, 1958).