The CBI

Abstract

Although generals and reporters in the Pacific complained that their campaigns were being neglected at home, the China-India-Burma theater was to many Americans the real backwater. The media had done a good job covering the searing defeat in Burma in 1942, but for the next two years it showed little interest in Joseph Stilwell’s efforts to revamp his complex command, build up supply dumps in India, and turn the Chinese troops in India into a new force. Media interest started to grow when Stilwell launched an offensive in 1944, with reporters devoting most of their attention to the exploits of Merrill’s Marauders, but then the censors clamped down hard on the stalemate at Myitkyina. By October 1944, Stilwell had created so many enemies in the theater that Roosevelt decided to relieve him just days before the presidential election.