Essays in Public Policy
1 total work
Seagrave has been careful, however, to give at least the appearance of having written for another, more serious purpose. Ostensibly, his goal is to show how the Soongs and the K'ungs dominated China's government under Chiang Kai-shek and, through their unscrupulousness and corruption, eventually brought about its destruction. But Seagrave cannot prove that Madame Chiang's family ever enjoyed anything approaching such power and, in fact, his real aim is far more ambitious than any expose of the Soongs and K'ungs--namely, to damingly indict Chiang Kai-shek himself: as a man, a soldier, and a political leader. In this respect, the book is so biased, so unrealiable, so riddled with errors, and so utterly lacking in historical perspective that much of it could be classified as fiction rather than as a work of history. Moreover, Seagrave is not content with merely savaging the Nationalists for their actions on the mainland more than three decades ago. He also diismisses their very subtantial achievements in Taiwan during the past thirty-five years, and he seems bent on undermining the reputation of the government there at a time when it desperately needs American support for its efforts to prevent annexation by the Communist regime in Peking.