The China Mission

Reviews and Endorsements

One of the Economist's Books of the Year

Thoroughly researched and compellingly written, [The China Mission] is at once a revealing study of character and leadership, a vivid reconstruction of a critical episode in the history of the early Cold War and an insightful meditation on the limits of American power even at its peak.

New York Times

Deeply researched and written with verve, the book ought to be read by any U.S. foreign-policy maker practicing diplomacy in Asia. . . . Mr. Kurtz-Phelan has performed a service in reviving this important episode with such aplomb, rigor and pace.

Wall Street Journal

Both a compelling portrait of a remarkable soldier and statesman, and an instructive lesson on the limits of American power, even at its zenith.

Economist

Kurtz-Phelan does a splendid job of delineating Marshall’s evolving relationships with Chiang [Kai-shek] and the Communists’ main negotiator, Zhou Enlai, who would figure mightily later on when the United States and China resumed their ties in the 1970s. . . . [The] work also constitutes an enormous contribution to our understanding of Marshall.

Washington Post

In careful and evocative detail, Kurtz-Phelan depicts this important chapter in American foreign-policy history.

Vogue

A superb researcher, Kurtz-Phelan ably narrates an exasperating story featuring a genuinely peerless hero doing his best in a no-win situation. The definitive history of a failure from which the U.S. seemingly learned nothing.

Kirkus Reviews

America has always sought to convert rather than understand China, whether to Christianity or capitalism. . . . In this brilliant historical study, Daniel Kurtz-Phelan focuses on the pivotal moment of misunderstanding between these two very different countries. As a bonus, he provides a beautifully written portrait of George Marshall, a statesman of such integrity that he seems as far removed from Washington, DC, today as would an ancient Roman.

Fareed Zakaria, Host, CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS; Author, The Post-American World

[The China Mission] has much to teach us about both the past and future of American leadership—and about what individual leadership means in the face of hard choices. I have rarely read such a vivid account of how diplomacy really works.

Madeleine Albright, Former Secretary of State

In gripping, crystalline detail, Kurtz-Phelan has given us a vital new chapter on American statecraft. The lessons from what he calls the ‘unsettled world’ of the early Cold War are urgently relevant today. The China Mission will be read for years to come as a window on the origins of American power—and the limits of its reach.

Evan Osnos, Staff Writer, New Yorker; Author, Age of Ambition

The best character study of Marshall I’ve yet seen. He comes alive here as in nothing else that’s been written about him. A major achievement.

John Lewis Gaddis, Author, George F. Kennan; Professor of History, Yale University

Was America’s greatest statesman to blame for America’s greatest diplomatic failure? In this wonderfully written book, Daniel Kurtz-Phelan sheds a bright light on a crucial but dimly understood chapter in U.S. foreign policy. His portrait of Marshall is a model of empathetic but clear-eyed biography.

Evan Thomas, Author, Ike’s Bluff; Coauthor, The Wise Men

An outstanding book on a very important subject: how to use American power judiciously and effectively in a rapidly changing world.

Odd Arne Westad, S. T. Lee Professor of U.S.-Asia Relations, Harvard University

Kurtz-Phelan has written a marvelous narrative about General George Marshall’s valiant effort to bring Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong together at the end of World War Two. . . . But apart from the engrossing China saga, what makes this book so absorbing—and sometimes even touching—is that it draws the reader into the life of a truly great American, reminding us of a different time in America’s odyssey when a sense of modesty, service to mankind, and duty to country were enthroned and esteemed.

Orville Schell, Author, Wealth and Power: China’s Long March to the 21st Century; Director, Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations