Diplomats in blue

The chapters of this study discuss the U.S. Navy in China between the years 1922-1933, focusing principally on the use of the Navy as an instrument of diplomacy in China rather than war; in the absence of diplomats, naval officers were called upon to acts as diplomats. The chapters roughly divide into three parts. The first part follows the warlord years with the U.S. Navy, the Army in North China, the Yangtze River Patrol Force in middle China, and the South China Patrol. The second part follows the Navy's response to the rise of the Nationalists and their march to the north. They cover the Nanking Incident of 1927, when American and British warships fired on Nanking to save resident foreigners from possible massacre at the hands of the Nationalist Army. The third part tells of the conduct of the U.S. Navy, Marines, and Army during the Manchurian Incident of 1931, the Shanghai Incident of 1932, and the unstable peace that followed the latter. Warlord activities persisted throughout the years of this study and Nationalist sentiments are evident early in the study during the Canton Customhouse Incident in 1923. The author, actually lived in China during his father's tour of duty with the Navy during the 1920s and 30s, is both historian and witness providing a special insight to this turbulent time period in Chinese history.