Magruder, John (1887-1958)

©Virginia Military Institute Archives

All rights reserved. Used by permission.

Magruder was a graduate (and later commandant) of Virginia Military Institute who spent much of his career in staff or military attaché assignments. He was the head of the American military mission to China at the time war broke out in the Pacific. Chosen for the post because he was a general officer who had previously served as military attaché in China (the only other officer so qualified being Stilwell), his nominal role was directing the flow of Lend-Lease supplies to the Kuomintang. However, he was also responsible for securing the logistics to support the American Volunteer Group and to advise Chiang Kai-shek on use of Lend-Lease while discretely acting to ensure that Lend-Lease supplies were not wasted or misused. (It was Magruder who first voiced the suspicion that Chiang was hoarding Lend-Lease against a civil war with the Communists rather than using it to fight the Japanese.) He was directed to work directly with Chiang and was not authorized to engage in staff conversations, but was to transmit all proposals to Washington without comment. This proved to be a nearly unworkable assignment.

Magruder was recalled to the States in 1943 and thereafter served with the OSS.

Service record

References

Arlington National Cemetary Website (accessed 2008-10-10)

Peattie et al. (2011)

Romanus and Sunderland (1952; accessed 2012-9-1)

The Pacific War Online Encyclopedia © 2008, 2012, 2015 by Kent G. Budge. Index

What's new

Comment on this article