iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Stephen R. Platt

@stephenplatt.bsky.social

547 followers 259 following 26 posts

Historian. Books include Imperial Twilight (Knopf, 2018) and Autumn in the Heavenly Kingdom (Knopf, 2012). New book: The Raider (Knopf, 2025). www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/61…

Posts Replies Media

Stephen R. Platt @stephenplatt.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

A war correspondent in 1944 described him as the most beloved officer in the Marine Corps to the enlisted men. But his reputation would be posthumously destroyed in the McCarthy era on account of his connections to the Chinese Communists. Today he is forgotten.

Carlson in helmet near the end of his life.

110

Stephen R. Platt @stephenplatt.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Carlson was a darling of the wartime press and one of the most decorated Marines of his time. Here he is receiving his third Navy Cross from Admiral Nimitz:

130

Stephen R. Platt @stephenplatt.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

He modeled his Raider battalion directly on what he had learned in China. As he wrote to a friend from Guadalcanal, "The old master's philosophy is the guiding force in my organization." The "old master" was Zhu De, the tactical genius behind China's Red Army.

110

Stephen R. Platt @stephenplatt.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

After Pearl Harbor, Carlson founded the legendary 2nd Marine Raider Battalion, an early U.S. special forces unit that would gain national fame in the Pacific. Here they are on Guadalcanal:

A group of Marine Raiders on Guadalcanal

110

Stephen R. Platt @stephenplatt.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

He was on a personal mission from FDR to learn about the tactics and organizational methods of China's armies. He came out of the experience an apostle of guerrila warfare.

Carlson in a magazine as "Number One Guerrilla"

110

Stephen R. Platt @stephenplatt.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

It's a biography of an extraordinary WWII Marine named Evans Carlson, who embedded with China's communist Eighth Route Army in the late 1930s. Here he is with Mao:

182

Stephen R. Platt @stephenplatt.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

Happy to report that I've got a new book out, The Raider.

3195

Stephen R. Platt @stephenplatt.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

So much fun talking about the Opium War and trashing on the East India Company with William Dalrymple last week in Jaipur.

070