"Soon after the Sino-Japanese conflict began in July 1937, it became apparent that, unless China received foreign support, it would be unable to conduct anything by defensive operations ... In the summer of 1941, however, passage of the Lend-Lease bill, China's critical military condition, and a desire to create a basis for future Sino-American military cooperation, induced the War Department to recommend the dispatch of a military mission to China ... This paper will demonstrate that United States indifference to global events, including pre-1941 Sino-American relations, and United States unpreparedness and indecision, affected the American Military Mission's ability to support logistically the world's most populous nation in 1941 and 1942. The paper will also examine AMMISCA's involvement in numerous Sino-American and Anglo-Chinese-American debates and projects, such as the Yunnan-Burma Railway, the Burma Road, and the distribution of Lend-Lease supplies. Perhaps the most significant of all the aspects of AMMISCA surveyed in this dissertation, however, was the Mission's attempt to initiate a quid-pro-quo policy regarding Lend-Lease supplies for China"--Introduction.