The wartime perception of the Chinese Communists in the United States and other Western nations before and during World War II varied widely in both the public and government circles.
Founded in 1921, the Chinese Communist Party was initially allied with the Kuomintang until the second half of the 1920s, when the former was purged from membership within the unified national government under Chiang Kai-shek.
In 1934, the party nearly annihilated, and the remnants under the guidance of future Chairman Mao Zedong launched an ambitious retreat to escape destruction by the Kuomintang, known as the Long March.
Writing for The Nation, Snow stated that the Chinese Communists "happen to have renounced, years ago now, any intention of establishing communism [in China] in the near future.
[6] Frustrated with the Nationalists' disorganization and corruption, Ambassador to China Clarence Gauss recommended for the US to "pull up the plug and let the whole Chinese Government go down the drain".
[8] China Burma India Theater Commander Joseph Stilwell repeatedly claimed (in contradiction to Comintern statistics) that Communists were doing more than the KMT against Japan, and sought to cut off all US aid to Chiang.
[13] Wang Jingwei's puppet regime, backed by Japan, produced extensive propaganda claiming that its main purpose was anti-communism, which backfired and further helped to bolster the legitimacy of the Communists among the peasant victims of Japanese reprisals.