Roosevelt Papers

President Roosevelt to Generalissimo Chiang 1

My Dear Generalissimo: This note will be given to you by Lieutenant General Henry H. Arnold, U.S. Army, the commander of our Air Force. I am sending him to you because I am determined to increase General Chennault’s air force in order that you may carry the offensive to the Japanese at once. General Arnold will work out the ways and means with you and General Chennault.

General Arnold will also tell you about the plans to intensify our efforts to drive the Japanese out of the Southwest Pacific. As I wired you,2 I have been meeting with the Prime Minister and our respective Chiefs of Staff to plan our offensive strategy against Japan and Germany during 1943. I want Arnold to talk all this over with you in the greatest detail because I think it would be best that I not put it on the cables.

Mrs. Roosevelt has seen Madame Chiang Kai-Shek several times and we are all hoping that she can come to see us very soon. Her health is improving rapidly.

I have great hopes for the war in 1943, and like you, I want to press it home on the Japanese with great vigor. I want to convey not only my warm regard for you personally, but my everlasting appreciation of the service which your armies are giving to our common cause.

Cordially yours,

Franklin D. Roosevelt
  1. The text of this letter as printed in Arnold, p. 415, is dated January 25, 1943. It contains minor variations in punctuation and capitalization. Arnold, who left Casablanca on January 24, delivered the letter to Chiang at Chungking in early February.
  2. Apparently a reference to the joint message of January 25, 1943, from the President and the Prime Minister, post, p. 807.