 Prior to the Dixie Mission , the U.S considered military interventions into CPC held China , such as an unimplemented idea by the Office of Strategic Services to send agents into north China . The Dixie Mission began , according to John Paton Davies , Jr . ' s memo , on January 15 , 1944 . Davies , a Foreign Service Officer serving in the China Burma India Theater ( CBI ) , called for the establishment of an observers ' mission in Chinese Communist territory . Davies argued that the communists offered attractive strategic benefits in the fight against Japan and that the more the U.S. ignored the communists , the closer Yan 'an - the ' capital ' of CPC held China - would move to Moscow . With the support of Davies ' superior , General Joseph Stilwell , this memorandum successfully convinced the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt to put the plan into motion . 
