Office of the Historian

Major General Patrick Hurley to President Roosevelt 94

Chungking, October 23, 1944—6:30 p.m.

NCR 934. Message from the Gissimo to the President:

“I am most gratified by your heartening message.94a It is my confident belief that the recent changes will inaugurate a period of Sino-American collaboration more understanding more intimate and more fruitful than ever before. We can now concentrate our united efforts to the defeat of the common enemy. Signed Chiang Kai Shek”

Today the Gissimo asked me to say to you that he hoped it would be possible for you to send General Wedemeyer to Chungking soon.

With the advice and consent of the Gissimo we are having conferences with the leaders of the Communist Party and the Communist troops. The Communist military forces can be united with the National Army for the purpose of directing the united military force of China against Japan. The Gissimo has also stated that he will make certain changes that we have suggested in both his military organization and civil administration.

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The Generalissimo is grateful to you for the help you are giving him in bringing about the unification of the military force of China and in promoting efficiency of the military establishment.

  1. Telegram received through military channels on October 24. Copy obtained from the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N. Y.↩
  2. For text of President Roosevelt’s message of October 18, 1944, see Charles F. Romanus and Riley Sunderland, Stilwell’s Command Problems (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1956), p. 468.↩