After a long break, I am blogging again! I have been reading George Marshall Defender of the Republic by David L. George Marshall is known for being the Chief of Staff of the United States Army during World War II and after the war Secretary of State, and Secretary of Defense. He is less known for serving as a special envoy to China in an unsuccessful effort to mediate and negotiate a coalition government between the Nationalists of Chiang Kai-shek and the Communists under Mao Zedong. There were many reasons for the failure of the mission but what stands out in my mind and as Roll said, “There were two provios …that undermined Marshall’s status as an impartial mediator.” One was that if the mission failed the Truman administration would still back Chiang’s government and the second was that the United States policy was that Chiang’s Nationalist government was the only legal government in China. Due to a leak, both of these were known to Chiang. Chiang had no incentive to mediate in good faith. He thought he would either get his desired results in the mediation and if not the United States government would still back him. Supposed knowledge of results is why many mediations fail. Parties often think they have knowledge of the results if mediation fails and thus do not have an incentive to mediate in good faith. They have been told and believe they can’t loose if they go to Court. They hope the mediation will result in their preconceived results. If the mediation does not, then what do they have to loose by going to Court. This is an unfortunate attitude and we try to convince clients that what they believe will happen, often does not happen.
Learn more about mediation at https://www.center-divorce-mediation.comCDM (367) 2/23/20