Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi) (1887-1975): prominent leader of the KMT.

Song Meiling (Madame Chiang Kai-shek) (b. 1897): second wife of Nationalist Chinese president Chiang Kai-shek and sister of Song Qingling, wife of Sun Yat-sen.

Mao Zedong (1893-1976): Marxist theorist, guerilla tactician, and foremost CCP leader after 1949 founding of the PRC until his own death.

Zhou Enlai (1898-76): A leading member of CCP leadership after the Long March, Mao's "right-hand man," and the frequent diplomatic representative of the CCP.

Second United Front (1938-41): As a result of the Xian Incident, Chiang agreed to join forces with CCP troop to confront Japanese advance. Cooperation ended in 1945 with the resumption of the civil war.

Marco Polo Bridge Incident (July 7, 1937): first shots of WWII, involving a skirmish between Chinese and Japanese troop 10 miles north of Beijing.

Rape of Nanjing (Dec. 1937- Feb. 38): Japanese military assault on Chinese civilians left behind in the KMT retreat. In the raping and looting that followed, between 40,000 and 300,000 civilians were killed. The city remained the site of a puppet regime until Japan's defeat in 1945.

Yanan Period (1935-1945): Period in which CCP established their wartime government in North Central China.

Chongqing: Wartime capital of the KMT following retreat from Japanese advance in 1937.

Japanese terror campaign of "Kill all, Burn all, Destroy all," designed to demoralize rural population of North China and to discourage Communist organizing

General Joseph Stilwell (1883-1946): US military man sent by Roosevelt to assist the KMT in fighting the Japanese in China.

Patrick J. Hurley (1883-1963) US military diplomat who served in the Pacific and was instrumental in KMT-CCP negotiations; generally sided with the "China Lobby" in supporting Chiang Kai-shek.

Albert Wedemeyer (1897-1989): American military leader responsible for early US military strategy in the Pacific War and commander of US forces in China from 1944 to 1946.