Thereafter, Dr. Sun became his devoted disciple’s mentor and role model, and counseled him privately. “You have a very fiery temper, and your hatred of mediocrity is excessive,” urging both caution and patience in attaining their joint goals of freedom, independence, and prosperity for China.
“You are extremely self willed and let your anger go unchecked,” Dr. Sun wrote to the man who would ultimately rise above the “Age of the Warlords” of 1920-26 to become virtual dictator of Nationalist China as his successor, with the civilian title of President and the martial one of Generalissimo, the head of the Kuomintang Party that would wage an on-again, off-again civil war of a quarter century with the peasant based People’s Liberation Army of Communist leader Ma Zedong and his subordinates, Chou En-lai, Chu The, and Lin Piao, all of whom Chiang knew personally.

Following the defeat of the domestic bandit warlords (who were never entirely beaten, however, and made shifting alliances with both sides), Chiang decided to fight the Communists first and the invading Japanese second. He stated as his strategy that the Western Allies would ultimately defeat Imperial Japan in the their own Pacific War (he was correct), but overlooked the fact that such a strategy would play into Mao’s hands by discrediting him and his Nationalists in the eyes of the peasant masses and bring them into the Red fold ultimately; this happened.
In Chiang’s stated assertion, “The Japanese are a disease of the skin. The Communists are a disease of the heart. Although he was correct in this belief as well, it would prove to be his undoing during the post-World War II renewed Chinese civil war of 1945-49 that resulted in his expulsion from the Mainland in October 1949 to found the Taiwan Nationalist regime that still exists there today and is a periodic flashpoint of continued tension in the Far East.

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Henry Mcneal Turner rose from cotton fields to Union Chaplanin Church Bishop

A Though the name Henry McNeal Turner is rarely remembered today, this African- American was a pivotal personality in America’s march toward equal rights during the dark years of the Civil War and beyond.
Known as a dreamer and intellectual, Turner grew up under conditions that would have defeated a lesser individual. Not so in his case! At an early age he developed an abiding faith in himself that one day millions of people would look to him for leadership.
Turner was born free in 1834 near Newberry, South Carolina to Sarah Greer and Hardy Turner. Sarah’s father, David Greer, arrived in America aboard a slave ship bearing a Mandingo coat of arms tattoo indicating royal lineage. Because David Greer was never sold into slavery, his grandson, too, never experienced the rigors of slave status.
Still, Henry’s life was not an easy one. Following the death of his father, he was apprenticed to a local planter and learned the trades of carriage maker and blacksmith, along with work in the area’s vast cotton fields. His mother taught him a few reading fundamentals.
It was the Christian faith, however, that addressed and answered many of his questions about the meaning of life. Following his conversion during a Methodist revival in 1849, he committed himself to the Christian ministry.
One year later young Turner obtained a janitorial job in an Abbeville law office, a position that quickly provided him with new opportunities. Noting his high intelligence and ability, the firm’s attorneys taught him to write; laid out ambitious goals for him; and permitted him use of the law library, a step rarely heard of in South Carolina at that time.
After receiving his Methodist preacher’s license in 1853, the 19 year old Turner set out to spread the Gospel across sections of the lower South, often preaching to both black and white audiences. He spent much of his time in Georgia, where he held successful revivals in Macon, Atlanta, and Athens. He also traveled over to Montgomery, Alabama, and all the way down to New Orleans, Louisiana.

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