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Eleanor Roosevelt’s High Expectations Regarding Madame Chiang Kai-shek
by Tim Sheehan

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FDR’s Focus on the War
Page 19 of 24

FDR knew that the First Lady would push such an agenda if given the platform to do so. The President and the Allies wanted to focus on winning the war. Preaching democratic values surely would have lost Joseph Stalin from cooperating with the United States and Great Britain. The President also came to the realization that Chiang Kai-shek would not create a democratic China, which he could accept. As long as a stable China existed, it could preserve a balance in the Pacific between Japan and Russia. FDR didn’t want to force democracy on Stalin and Chiang Kai-shek. He wanted all to focus on the war.(91) Madame Chiang’s presence at Cairo related to the war effort. ER’s presence would only have upset the President’s focus.

Franklin Roosevelt held firm on his decision not to allow Eleanor Roosevelt to visit China. ER informed Madame that such a trip “does not seem imminent.” The President, explained ER, wants ER to instead visit troops in “this hemisphere.”(92) Her visit to China never happened. FDR instead sent her to the Caribbean, a trip she describes in This I Remember as “not soul-stirring.”(93)

©2009-2012 Tim Sheehan tim@historynut.info

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This page last updated 1 January 2012