Abstract

Chiang's Prussian Clique

This article presents brief information on the book "A Military History of Modern China," by F.F. Liu. One essential ingredient in both the rise and fall of Chiang Kaishek was his military support, the Whampoa clique. These were the generals who first became his followers as cadets at the Whampoa Military Academy in 1924-26 and who dominated the Nationalist armies for a quarter of a century thereafter. Liu, a former Nationalist officer with an honorable combat and staff record, has now given a critical and highly illuminating inside account of the Chinese Nationalist military machine--its early formation under Soviet inspiration following Chiang's trip of 1923 to Moscow; its later reorganization, after the Nationalist unification of China in 1928,