Framed General Stilwell Humorous Dedication by U.S. Army MARS Program (c.WWII)
 
Joseph Warren "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell (19 March 1883 – 12 October 1946) was a United States Army general who served in the China-Burma-India theater during World War II. Stilwell was appointed as Chief of Staff for Chiang Kai-shek, the Chinese Nationalist leader, and spent the majority of his tenure striving for a 90-division army trained by American troops, using American lend-lease equipment, and fighting to reclaim Burma from the Japanese. His efforts led to friction with Chiang, who viewed troops not under his immediate control as a threat and who saw the Chinese Communists as a greater rival than Japan.
 
An early American popular hero of the war for leading a column walking out of Burma pursued by the victorious Imperial Japanese Armed Forces, Stilwell's implacable demands for units debilitated by disease to be sent into heavy combat resulted in Merrill's Marauders becoming disenchanted with him. The U.S. government was infuriated by the 1944 fall of Changsha to a Japanese offensive. Stilwell delivered a message to Chiang from President Roosevelt threatening that Lend-Lease aid to China would be cut off. The resulting friction atop an already tense relationship made Ambassador Patrick J. Hurley advocate that Stilwell had to be replaced. Chiang had been intent on keeping Lend-Lease supplies to fight the Chinese Communist Party, but Stilwell had been obeying his instructions to get the Communists and Nationalists to cooperate against Japan. The ousting of Stilwell fermented the disillusionment of U.S. policymakers with Chiang that culminated in the 1947 end of American assistance to the Republic of China during the Chinese Civil War.
 
This piece contains several humorous cartoons and quips around General Stilwell's work with the MARS program.
 
The Military Auxiliary Radio System (MARS) is a United States Department of Defense-sponsored program, established as a separately managed and operated program by the United States Army and the United States Air Force. 
 
The piece also contains the signatures of three of the MARS Commanding directors and staff underneath a humorous recommendation for General Stilwell. 
 
Measures 40 cm x 54 cm
 
Medium Framed for sale