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Joseph Warren Stilwell ( March 19 , 1883 – October 12 , 1946 ) was a United States Army four-star General best-known for his service in China . His military career was unique: he rarely commanded American troops, worked mostly on his own, and still managed to reach the rank of four-star general on August 1, 1944. Stilwell was born in Palatka, Florida in 1883, and graduated from West Point in 1904. He taught modern languages at West Point, attended the Infantry Advanced Course, and the Command And General Staff College . During World War I , he was an intelligence officer assigned to the Fourth Corps and helped plan the St. Mihiel offensive. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for his service in France. Between the wars, Stilwell served three tours in China, where he became fluent in Chinese and was the military attaché at the United States embassy in Nanjing from 1935 to 1939. Stilwell served in many overseas and stateside commands. He organized the the U.S. 7th Infantry Division at Fort Ord , California in 1940. Although he was seriously considered for command in the European Theater Of Operations due to his success leading armored formations in the Louisiana Maneuvers of 1939, Stilwell was sent to China in February 1942 because he was the only high-ranking officer in the U.S. Army who spoke fluent Chinese. His assignment was as Chief of Staff to Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek. However, as the campaign in Burma developed, he also took on a role there. The U.S. Army established the China Burma India Theater (CBI Theater) and placed Stilwell in command. The CBI Theater was not supposed to be an operational headquarters; it was merely supposed to be in charge of the administation of American military formations in China, Burma and India. However, Stilwell often broke the chain of command and communicated directly with the Joint Chiefs Of Staff on operational matters, when all such communications were supposed to go to Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten , the Supreme Allied Commander, South East Asia . Stilwell also took on operational control of Northern Combat Area Command (NCAC) through General George Giffard commander of 11th Army Group . and Madame Chiang Kai-shek .]] Stilwell thus had four different jobs to perform, requiring him to be in different places at once. For example, as Chief of Staff to Chiang he was often needed in Chungking , the Chinese capital, and as Deputy Allied Supreme Commander he was needed at HQ South East Asia Command at Kandy , in Ceylon ; and as NCAC commander he was required to be relatively near the front line in Burma. His personality also caused problems. Stilwell clashed frequently with the commander of the 11th Army Group, General Giffard, and would not accept being under his command, instead insisting that NCAC came directly under the Supreme Commander. As Deputy Allied Supreme Commander he was Giffard's superior, but as operational commander of NCAC he should have been Giffard's inferior; as the two men did not get on, in part due to Stilwell's pronounced Anglophobia; this inevitably led to conflict and confusion. Similarly, he feuded with his own air officer, Claire Chennault , who in turn was apt to bypass Stilwell and deal directly with Chiang Kai-shek. "Vinegar Joe", as he was called, famously lacked tact and a capacity for conventional diplomacy. In spite of this, he tried to convince Generalissimo and for Chiang to put aside his fears, perhaps an unreasonable expectation given the threat the Communists posed to Chiang's regime. In October 1944, due to personal disagreements with Chiang Kai-Shek, President Roosevelt recalled Stilwell to the United States . His former roles were divied up, as was CBI:
Stilwell was reassigned to command the Tenth Army during the final stages of the Battle Of Okinawa , after the Tenth Army's commander was killed by enemy fire. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster and the Legion Of Merit for his service in the Second World War. His WWII motto was " Illegitimi Non Carborundum ," pseudo-Latin for "Don't let the bastards grind you down." As was the case with many other Americans involved in Chinese affairs, Stilwell's diplomatic efforts were obliterated with the rise to power of the Communist Party Of China and retreat of the Kuomintang government to Taiwan in the Chinese Civil War , after the United States withheld Congressional appropriations money meant for Chiang's nationalists. Without these vital funds, Chiang's currency went into hyper-inflation, and he was unable to buy ammunition to fight against the Communist take-over of China. Biographer Barbara W. Tuchman chose the Metaphor "sand against the wind", to characterise the futile nature of Stilwell's efforts in China. In 1946, Stilwell was the commanding officer of the U.S. Sixth Army and the commanding officer of the Western Defense Command. He died in San Francisco later that year. He was cremated and his ashes spread at sea. A Cenotaph was placed at the West Point Cemetery . His son, Brigadier General Joseph W. Stilwell Jr., known as "Cider Joe," served as a senior commander during the early U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. A street, Stilwell Court, was named after him in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His residence during his assignment to Fort Ord in Monterey, California was later renamed Stilwell Hall in his honor. The mansion was a popular landmark along California State Route 1 in between Marina, California and Seaside, California . Until its demolition in 2003, Stilwell Hall was known as the local "haunted house" for students of nearby California State University, Monterey Bay due to numerous amateur videos of seemingly paranormal occurrences and sounds. AWARDS AND DECORATIONS
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