The Kuomintang Candidate
Richard was a young adventurer who wanted to see the world now that he had missed the greatest event of the century, World War II. He had been too young to enlist and then it ended with the flow of other young men returning with stories that he could never formulate based on his own lack of experiences. Richard wanted to be a writer. He was trying to form his own adventures, so he was taking tramp steamers around the world in search of interesting stories to tell. It had been a bit of a bust as all the stories seemed to him to have been told. He was on a freighter heading home from China, or Formosa to be exact. He was working as the cook. He had hoped to find stories about the Chinese Civil War, a war hidden within the greater worldwide war. The freighter had no civilian travelers, but he did befriend one small wiry crew member who spoke English quite well. The crew member’s name was James, which was the anglicization of his native-born name, Zhou.
Richard spent one evening with James drinking too much baijiu, a rice-based drink that was far more potent than the traditional mariner’s rum. It was then that he heard the story that made his whole worldwide trip worthwhile.
James had been a loyal member of the Kuomintang in their fight for control of China against the forces of the Communist wave spreading across China. He had followed Chiang Kai Shek from the mainland to Formosa and had gone to the Maritime Academy as he had instructed. As the Kuomintang faded into obscurity, several key members went into deep hiding with a plan for eventual return to the mainland via a deeply devious and complex plan. James had married a fellow member of the cause and had tried to have her bear a son but had borne three girl children. He had to adjust his plan, but that was workable. He would emigrate to the United States (the purpose of this very trip to San Francisco). He would find his way to New York and establish a U.S. shipping company, using all he had learned in Shanghai at the Maritime Academy.
When he had enough money, he would send for his wife and daughters, who would be learning English in the meantime. When they got to New York, James would put his daughters through university and send his oldest daughter to Washington to get involved in politics and have his second daughter become a shipping expert. James had learned that shipping was so capital intensive that it needed political connections to thrive. He would play this game from both the commercial and political sides. He would teach his daughters to appreciate the importance of family and mission above all else. They would marry to suit those goals. They would work tirelessly toward those goals. All else would be tertiary.
As the night went on and the baijiu flowed too freely, James filled in the details. His eldest daughter would be the key to the plan. He would like her to grow to be the president of the United States, but that would not happen for many and obvious reasons. The next best thing would be for her to become a powerful non-elected politician, perhaps a cabinet secretary. To do that she would have to find an important, politically ambitious husband. James would make sure that that husband was pliable and ambitious and prone to accept the monies he would have to give to get the husband elected to Congressional office. That would mean that he probably needed to come from a less-prosperous and less-important state like Tennessee or Kentucky. Richard listened raptly while James spun this tale. He was impressed with the depth of his knowledge of the U.S. political system and very impressed by his shrewdness.
The rest of the story took on a fantastic and interesting angle that forced Richard to completely suspend disbelief. James explained that he would teach his daughters that they must work to position themselves for success and then use that to reconnect to the mother-ship of China. He was certain that by then, the communists in Peking would need economic power that could only come from the United States. They would make China a shipping powerhouse and in so doing undermine their own American presence in the business. That would seem counter-intuitive and thus no one would see it coming. But his ships would be flagged in Singapore and the Marshall Islands to make themselves more non-political in their orientation, such that they could operate broadly and without political interference.
The plan went on to fulfill the ultimate Kuomintang ambition of gradually and surreptitiously reclaiming governance of China, for the greater glory of the ultimate world domination that the true Chinese people deserved. The United States would be the vehicle for the transformation and would, in the end, be a mere shell or convenience for James’ family, who would become transnationals of the most powerful order. Richard realized the brilliance of the story despite its unbelievability.
When the ship docked in San Francisco, Richard could not find James. He found his way home and sat down to write his fantastic story. He was convinced that American’s would not find much of the story appealing if it was not set into the fears of the current political climate. While Senator McCarthy was in the rear-view mirror by then, fear of communism persisted and was aimed mostly at the Soviet Union. So, Richard wrote his novel based on James story, changing enough of the details to feed what Richard believed were the most saleable characters. The daughters became a son. The father (James) became an ambitious mother. And why focus on a cabinet member, it was more powerful if the target was the presidency itself.
When Richard completed the book, he took it to a publisher he had met at a writing workshop. The publisher agreed to read it, but immediately didn’t understand or like the title. After reading it he came back to Richard and said that it was barely believable, but very interesting nonetheless. He suggested that the title, The Kuomintang Candidate was too obscure. He remembered a Charlie Chan movie he had seen that mentioned a remote part of China called Manchuria, and suggested Richard change the name to The Manchurian Candidate. He also suggested having the story end with U.S. domination rather than the unbelievable reversal back to take over China as well. You have to keep these things believable after all, he argued.