提到近代史上對中華民國最為友好的美國人，那似乎非曾經在第二次世界大戰率領「飛虎隊」，來華助戰協助我國空軍抵抗日本侵略者，又在國共內戰期間組織民航空運公司，協助我國進行災後重建並抵禦共產黨的陳納德將軍莫屬。然而，當大多數研究戰爭史與軍事史的學者，將他們對陳納德的研究焦點普遍擺放在戰術格局上，將他定位為一位卓越的「戰術指揮官」，從而導致他的歷史地位始終無法與杜黑、米契爾、阿諾德、杜立德以及李梅等偉大的航空界領袖相提並論。 在美國，鮮少有軍事歷史學家或者學者對陳納德將軍早年所提出的制空權理論進行研究過。透過對陳納德本人著作與作品的研究，並藉由對他的保護、偵察、攔截與摧毀等四大理論的瞭解，乃至於他在二戰期間於中國戰場上對自己理論的實踐。學生希望能夠還給陳納德將軍一個本來的真面目。 本論文的目的不僅是在於還陳納德一個戰略家的歷史地位，也希望透過瞭解第二次世界大戰期間中國戰區整個複雜的時代背景，檢驗假若當年陳納德的理論能夠得到完全的實踐，是否能夠開創出一個更符合中美兩國的戰後亞太戰略環境。 Looking back at history, General Claire Lee Chennault was no doubt the best example of R.O.C-U.S.A military cooperation. General Chennault did not only organize the well known Flying Tigers during World War II to assist China in her war against the Japanese invasion, he also created the Civil Air Transportation to help the Chinese Nationalist Government in its war against the Communist. Since most people today focus much more about his works in tactical level, Chennault was never considered a great air power theorist or great aviators such as Giulio Douhet, Billy Mitchell, Henry Hap Arnold, James H. Doolittle and Curtis E. Lemay. In the United States, there were rarely military historians or scholars paying any attention to General Claire Lee Chennault’s air power theory, which was written by him during his earlier time with the United States Army Air Corps. By reading Chennault’s work, I like to examine Chennault’s theories of Protect, Detect, Interception, and Destruction and observe how Chennault actually implements his theories on the battlefield to determine what historical role General Claire Lee Chennault played during World War II. The goal of this thesis is not only to regard Chennault as a “Strategist”, but also tries to question whether there could be a better post war Asian Situation applied to the interests of both the Republic of China and the United States if Chennault had a chance to practice all his theories during the war.
