President Roosevelt's Recall of General Stilwell from China: A Military Casualty of Bureaucratic Politics

Abstract

President Franklin Roosevelt's recall of General Joseph Stilwell from the China-Burma-India Theater in 1944 occurred as a result of governmental bureaucratic politics. The President's recall decision was the culmination of a three-year dispute between the War Department and the President over the optimal military objectives to support Roosevelt's political objectives for China during World War II. This research paper will analyze the President's decision within the framework of Graham T. Allison's Governmental Politics Paradigm. The model views government decisions as products of "compromise, conflict and confusion of officials with diverse interests and unequal power. Using Allison's model, the paper will examine the President's decision by presenting the players' positions, preferences, compromises and actions which resulted in Stilwell's ultimate recall.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1994
Accession Number
ADA440887

Entities

People

  • John M. Gribbs

Organizations

  • National War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Power
  • Casualties
  • Communists
  • Far East
  • Governments
  • Information Operations
  • International Organizations
  • Military Advisors
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Second World War
  • Training
  • United States
  • Universities
  • War
  • War Colleges

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.