Dr. Sun had received a Western education which enabled him to reappraise the cultural assets of his own people in the light of modern political thinking. He found in China's traditional institutions of government such useful features as those of the civil service examinations and of the independent power of impeachment, which he later incorporated in his theory of Five-Power Constitution. But his basic political philosophy undoubtedly came from the ideals of the American [Independence War] and [the] French Revolution. In fact, his three people's principles* could be best paraphrased in Abraham Lincoln's famous saying; ". . . government of the people, by the people, for the people."

      * The Three Principles are nationalism, Political Democracy and People's Livelihood.

In was in 1911 that Dr. Sun and his followers finally succeeded in establishing a republican form of government for the Chinese people. But before the gains of the Revolution could be consolidated, Yuan Shih-kai, a remnant of the Manchu dynasty who was then in control of the armed forces in the North, conspired with the Imperialists. He overthrew the young republic and restored the monarchy with himself as the founder of what he had hoped to be a new dynasty. This was the Republic of China's setback. Although the new monarchy was a short-lived on,e the government subsequently fell into the hands of war lords who set up regional regimes and fought among themselves. Finally the country was plunged into chaos. Dr. Sun and his followers had to continue their work in their original base of Canton where in 1917 a revolutionary government was founded. His plan was to rally all revolutionary elements and to make preparations for a punitive expedition against the war lords in the North. In the ensuing years he repeatedly sought external aid but all his efforts were in vain. Not only did the Western Powers turn a deaf ear to his appeals, some of them were actually in collusion with the war lords for selfish ends. Japanese militarists were particularly active in scheming with one war lord after another, seeking all the time to further their own aggressive designs. As conditions throughout the country worsened, the Republic, founded by Dr. Sun and his followers, for all practical intents and purposes ceased to exist.

The successful coup d'état led by Lenin in 1917 not only ushered in a new regime in Russia but was destined to become the most powerful challenge to humanistic civilization in Asia as well as in Europe.

The most appealing argument of Russian Communism was its promise of a short cut to Utopia by a world revolution of the masses. This revolution was to justify all means of violence and subversion on the assumption that, one realized, it would lead to the creation of a permanent ideal state for all mankind. the appeal had an electrifying effect on progressive elements in all Asian countries where a century of Western colonial rule had already sown deep-seated resentment and accumulated discontent. Thus, the Russian Communists were able to capitalize on this state of mind to launch the initial phase in their program of World Revolution in Asia.

In China, where a subcolonial state had resulted from a series of unequal treaties imposed upon her, the Russian Communists found fertile soil for the reception of their ideas, and thus prepared the way for their subversive infiltration. The Chicherin Statement of 1918 and the Karakhan Declaration of 1919, announcing Russia's readiness to relinquish her special rights in China, immediately captured the imagination and unprecedentedly won the good will of the Chinese people. While initiating steps for negotiations with the government at Peking on this subject on the one hand, Russian emissaries approached Dr. Sun with offers of military and technical assistance on the other. At the same time, be it noted carefully, they proceeded to organize the Chinese Communist Party and provided it with financial help as well as political directives.

In January 1923 Dr. Sun and Adolf Joffe reached an agreement by which the Russian Communists were to extend to Dr. Sun's political party (Kuomintang, literally the National People's Party) all the necessary assistance to achieve national unification in accordance with the revolutionary programs Dr. Sun had laid down. The Russian Communists were also to instruct Chinese Communists to join Kuomintang and follow Dr. Sun's leadership in China's National Revolution. This marked the beginning of a period of cooperation and "peaceful coexistence" Between Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist party as well as between China and Russia. It soon proved itself a failure.

In spite of the failure of the first trial run of "peaceful coexistence," Kuomintang, and later the Chinese Government under my leadership, went through two more periods of "peaceful coexistence," resulting in the total loss of the Chinese mainland. Under Russian Communists' instigation, the Chinese Communists tried to sabotage the National Revolution and overthrow the Republic of China by resort to violence. Since they seized the mainland, they have imposed on the Chinese people there a totalitarian dictatorship. This is tantamount to a repetition of what Yuan Shih-kai did to the national Revolution early in the Republic. The methods used by the Chinese Communists in betraying the country and oppressing the people, however, are far more shameless and vicious than those of the northern war lords. This is an important reason for the Republic's second setback. I feel that I owe it to my own people and to the world at large to give a truthful account of the circumstances in which y party and my government were compelled to give "peaceful coexistence" two more trials even though the first had ended in failure. In all three instances, it will become clear in the following pages, prior consideration had to be given to certain overriding factors of national or international importance.

In presenting this record to the world, I am filled with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I am fully aware that my country has been a victim of circumstances which drove her to temporary alignment with Soviet Russia on more than one occasion in spite of the known treacherous character and the aggressive aim of international Communism; on the other, i can lay claim to the proud fact that I have incessantly fought Communist aggression and Communist ideas for the last thirty-odd years. Like Dr. Sun himself, who on signing the agreement with Joffe declared that Communism was totally unsuitable to the needs of the Chinese people and, there fore, could not be endorsed by Kuomintang, I remain firmly convinced that the only road open to the Chinese people is that marked out by Dr. Sun's Three People's Principles. It must be noted that throughout the book i have used the word "revolution" consistently in the sense of China's National Revolution. The Communists are opposed to our national Revolution. Their aim is to practice Communism in China. Therefore, i regard Communism as a counterrevolutionary movement. t will help my readers if they will bear in mind that I shall continue to view world events in the light of this distinction.

It is my earnest hope that the bitter lessons China has learned may prove instructive to countries and governments, and especially those in Asia which now face the same threat of Communism. Often it is not easy for most people to realize the presence of this threat in their midst, and by the time they do, it may already be too late to prevent its thrusting them behind the Iron Curtain [of some sort] at least for a time. If this book can in any way help enhance the vigilance and determination of those who are defending the cause of freedom and democracy and to bring home to the avowed neutralists the realization that they are unwittingly serving the Communist purpose, my labor will have been rewarded and the great sacrifices that the Chinese people have made will not have been in vain.