As a young boy, read Tuchman’s “Stilwell and the American Experience in China.” Have no idea how the book found its way into my hands.
It gave me an interest in China and Chinese Language I still have today.
“Vinegar Joe”?
Interesting guy.
My favorite Stilwell anecdote:
The General was fluent in Chinese. When he returned to the U.S. after V-J Day, the citizens of San Francisco Chinatown gave him a ticker tape parade. A Chinese-American kid asked for his autograph and Vinegar Joe signed his name in Mandarin characters. The kid looked at it for a second and said,
“Hell, a three star general and he can’t even write English!”
;^)