A Matter of Despair

Nationalist China, now formally abandoned by the U.S., crumbled faster & faster. On the day the State Department issued its White Paper, Red columns led by Manchurian General Lin Piao marched unopposed into Hunan's capital of Changsha, last major city between the Communist armies and Canton, seat of the Nationalist government.

The world's headlines called it a story of treason; it was perhaps just as much a matter of despair. Nationalist Generals Cheng Chien and Chen Ming-jen had been close all their lives. Together they had risen to positions of leadership and trust in the Nationalist government. They shared a common dislike of Chiang Kaishek.

One night late last month, Cheng Chien, defender of Changsha, slipped over the Communist lines, surrendered the city. In Canton, the Nationalists promptly-named Cheng's boyhood friend, Chen Ming-jen, to succeed him as defender of what was left of Hunan province. Said Chen: "I shall defend the nation and protect my native province."

Last week, Chen Ming-jen defected to the Communists too. Another southward lunge brought the Communists within 215 miles of Canton, where weary Nationalist officials began packing again. Their next stop: Chungking, scene of their exile during most of the war with Japan. Nationalist General Pai Chung-hsi hastily regrouped what was left of his forces at Hengyang.

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