Dixie Mission in China | James P. Bevill

Join the National Museum of the Pacific War for our June webinar entitled, "The Dixie Mission in China during World War II.” Listen to author James P. Bevill talk about this lesser known WW2 mission in China. On July 22, 1944, a group of nine Americans, led by Jack Service and Col. David Barrett, landed on an airstrip in Yenan, in northern China. They comprised the US Army Observation Group, which was to undertake a political analysis of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Although at odds with the Nationalist Government of Chiang Kai-shek, the CCP possessed valuable intelligence on their mutual enemy, the Japanese. Colonel Barrett was in charge of gathering military information on the Communist Army. His goal was to assess their forces and work on building a cooperative military strategy with the US to defeat the Japanese. Their exploratory venture into Communist territory was known by the code name of “Dixie Mission.” This was a tongue-in-cheek reference to Union missions behind Confederate lines during the American Civil War. This is a little-known story of diplomatic overtures by the Chinese Communists, who were courting the Americans for military aid. Their collective journeys and first-hand accounts opens our eyes to a behind the scenes look at how these two unlikely allies adapted to world changing political events during China’s most horrific military conflict. James P. Bevill is an independent historian and award-winning author. His love of history inspired him to read, organize and catalogue the voluminous papers of his father-in-law, Paul Springer, who taught at Yale-in-China in 1941-1942 before joining the U.S. State Department in Chungking. Those papers were the genesis for Blackboards and Bomb Shelters. Bevill’s previous works focused on economic, financial, political and naval history. He guest curated several educational exhibits on the Republic of Texas at major museums in his home state where he works in financial services.