The Burma Road in Peril

Chiang Kai-shek leads a China exhausted by four years of war against Japan. With the coastal ports lost, the Burma Road has become the sole artery through which American weapons and fuel reach Nationalist armies by truck and mule. Now Japanese columns are advancing on Rangoon at a pace that alarms Allied commanders. If the Burmese capital falls, the road will be severed and China will fight on empty.

The British, masters of Burmese territory, are reluctant to place Chinese divisions under their command: admitting these troops onto colonial soil would amount to acknowledging their own inability to defend the Empire. Yet their forces are overstretched, and General Archibald Wavell has grudgingly accepted limited cooperation.

Chiang must choose among 3 courses: dispatch his best divisions to Burma to hold Rangoon and keep the road open; retain all his forces to cover Chinese territory threatened on multiple fronts; or send only a token contingent, enough to satisfy the Allies without committing his strategic reserves. Pulling his best armies out of China risks internal collapse; but allowing the road to fall without a fight means accepting the slow strangulation of the nation.