The China Mirage - The Hidden History of American Disaster in Asia (Broché)

In this engrossing book, bestselling author James Bradley introduces us to the prominent Americans - including Franklin Delano Roosevelt's grandfather Warren Delano - who in the 1800s made their fortunes in the China opium trade. As these men profited by addicting millions, American churches sent missionaries in search of a myth : noble Chinese peasants eager to westernize. The media enthusiastically propagated this image, and FDR agreed that U.S.
support for Chiang Kai-shek and his glamorous American-educated wife would turn China into America's best friend in Asia. But Chiang was on his way out, and when Mao Zedong came to power, Americans were shocked, wondering how we had "lost China." Taking us from the nineteenth century through World War II and to the origins of the Vietnam War, Bradley reveals how American misconceptions about China have distorted our domestic and foreign policies and led to the avoidable deaths of millions.
Thrillingly told, The China Mirage dynamically explores the troubled history that defines U.S.-China relations to this day.