Sold – Madame Chiang, in the U.S. to Enlist Support Against the Imminent Communist Takeover

The Chinese Nationalist government was led from 1927 on by Chiang Kai-Shek, whose American-educated wife Mayling Soong Chiang was a strong and modernizing influence on him. By the 1930’s, their rule was being challenged politically and militarily by the Communists under their charismatic leader, Mao Tse-Tung. However, the Japanese entered the fray by invading China and conducting themselves with great brutality, so in 1937 the Communists and Nationalists implemented a truce in order for both to prosecute the war against Japan. The truce remained essentially intact until the end of World War II, after which the two antagonists resumed their power struggle.

The Communists gained ground between 1945 and 1949, by which time the Nationalists found themselves in a desperate position. It was clear that unless the United States intervened to support Chiang’s government, it would lose its hold and Mao would take over China. In the summer of 1949, Madame Chiang was dispatched to the U.S. to press for aid. On that trip she visited Washington and was also hosted at his vacation home in the Adirondacks by General George C. Marshall, former Secretary of State who remained influential even out of office. There she received and responded to correspondence.

Autograph Letter Signed on Marshall’s Camp Uncas stationery, Raquette Lake, August 20, 1949, to a Mr. Steele, affirming that she does not want to make public appearances. “Thank you for your kind letter of August eighteenth. Please tell the members of the Kiwanis Club of Gloversville how very much I appreciate their kind invitation to luncheon. I am only sorry that as I have not accepted any invitations to public functions on this trip to your country, I am unable to make an exception. But it is heart-warming to know that you, and your fellow members, are thinking of me. I know what fine work the Kiwanis Clubs are doing in their communities and that they represent the excellent civic spirit of America. I send my warm wishes for their future success, and in particular, the future and continuous success for the Kiwanis Club of Gloversville.”

Madame Chiang’s effort to enlist U.S. military aid was not successful despite her strategy, as American officials doubted that the situation could be salvaged and did not want to pour men or materiel into a doomed effort. On October 1, 1949, just five weeks after she wrote this letter, Mao proclaimed the People’s Republic of China and the Chiangs had to flee to Taiwan.