One Man's dinner

An interesting story was related to me by a Chinese friend recently. Back when I was in the Army, I discovered a box full of raw film footage of the Burma Road. the road was used as a backdoor into China by the KuoMinTang troops under the command of Jyang Jye Shr (Chiang Kai Shek) during the Japanese occupation of China. One thing I noticed in the films was the large number of dogs travelling with the Chinese troops. when I described the films to a Chinese friend of mine, he related a story about General Stillwell, commander of the US troops in Burma and China during WW2. Most historians know that there was no love lost between the KMT and the American General. Jiang resented America's involvement in the theater, while Stillwell took issue with Jiang's preoccupation with fighting the Communists rather than the Japanese invaders (Jiang attended military school in Japan and served for a while in the Japanese Army). Anyhow, like myself, General Stillwell noticed the number of dogs travelling with the Chinese soldiers, to which he commented "soldiers are the same the world over, they all love dogs and children". This widely reported comment horrified the Chinese Nationalists. You see, the Chinese dogs were basically "C" (combat) rations on four legs. The general's comment was interpreted to mean that US soldiers enjoyed eating children.