At the President's Pleasure: FDR's Leadership of Wartime Sino-US Relations

237 Pages·2015·1.451 MB·English

by  Sally K. Burt

At the President’s Pleasure
Studies on East Asian Security and
International Relations
Series Editors
Rüdiger Frank (University of Vienna)
Alfred Gerstl (University of Vienna)
VOLUME 3
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/seas
At the President’s Pleasure
fdr’s Leadership of Wartime Sino-us Relations
By
Sally K. Burt
LEIDEN | BOSTON
Burt, Sally, 1980-
At the president’s pleasure : FDR’s leadership of wartime Sino-US relations / by Sally K. Burt.
pages cm. -- (Studies on East Asian security and international relations, ISSN 2213-1051 ; volume 3)
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-90-04-28823-2 (hardback : alk. paper) -- ISBN 978-90-04-28824-9 (e-book) 1. United
States--Foreign relations--China. 2. China--Foreign relations--United States. 3. Roosevelt, Franklin
D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945--Influence. 4. United States--Foreign relations--1933-1945. 5. World War,
1939-1945--Diplomatic history. I. Title.
E183.8.C5B86 2015
327.7305109’04--dc23
2015014238
issn 2213-1051
isbn 978-90-04-28823-2 (hardback)
isbn 978-90-04-28824-9 (e-book)
Copyright 2015 by Koninklijke Brill nv, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill nv incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi and
Hotei Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
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Fees are subject to change.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
To Peter for your immense love and support
∵

Contents
Acknowledgements vii
List of Photos X
Introduction 1
1 Leaders and Presidents 7
Introduction 7
Leadership Theory 7
Presidents and Leadership Theory 14
Conclusion 25
2 Hail to the Chief: fdr’s Leadership Style 27
Introduction 27
fdr’s Early Life and First Terms 27
fdr’s Centralization of Power and the State Department  38
fdr’s Centralization of Power and the War Department 43
fdr, Public Opinion, and His Inconsistency 45
Conclusion 48
3 “The Most Important Factor in the Whole East”: fdr’s Vision for
Sino-us Relations 49
Introduction 49
The United States’ Interests in China 50
fdr’s China Vision in Context 53
Conclusion 67
4 A Vision without a Plan: fdr’s Wartime China Policies 69
Introduction 69
The United Nations Organization 71
Kuomintang-Communist Relations 74
Lend-Lease and Military Aid to China 80
Extraterritoriality 83
Repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Laws 88
Bureaucratic Leadership Theory and fdr 93
Conclusion 95
viii contents
5 “The Deckhand Diplomat”: Ambassador Gauss and General
Stilwell in China 96
Introduction 96
The Ambassador and His Role 97
The Ambassador and the State Department 103
General Stilwell and His Role 106
Stilwell and the War Department 113
Stilwell and Gauss in Competition 116
Failure in China 123
Organizational Leadership Theory and fdr 124
Conclusion 126
6 Washington Mandarins: fdr’s Personal Representatives to
China 127
Introduction 127
us Diplomats and Envoys to China 128
Chinese Diplomats and Envoys 148
Public Opinion 152
Foreign Policy Leadership Theory and fdr 157
Conclusion 158
7 Rubberlegs, the Peanut and the Limeys: fdr’s Summit Diplomacy  160
Introduction 160
The Exclusion of the State Department 161
Chinese Exclusion from Military Strategy 169
Chinese Involvement in Post-war Planning 181
The Impact of fdr’s Leadership Style 190
James Barber’s Leadership Theory and fdr 195
Conclusion 196
8 The Changing of the Guard 198
Introduction 198
The State Department after Hull 198
China after Stilwell and Gauss 199
The Presidency after Roosevelt 203
us Post-war China Policy 205
Changes in Institutional Relations 207
Conclusion 211
Conclusion 212
Bibliography 215
Index 224
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank all of my colleagues and friends who provided great sup-
port through the development of this project and made many helpful sugges-
tions and criticisms along the way. I would like to express my immense
gratitude to Professor Jeffrey Grey for his mentoring and advice. I would also
like to thank Peter Dennis for his invaluable advice and assistance with the
writing and David Lovell for his support and encouragement. I am also very
grateful to Bruce Elleman and Sally Paine who gave up their valuable time on a
trip to Australia to offer suggestions, advice and conversations which inspired
and developed some of the arguments found in this book. I express my appre-
ciation to the reviewers and series editors for their excellent suggestions and
comments about the manuscript.
I would like to thank the staff at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University,
the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, the National Archives in the
United States and the Library of Congress who I found most helpful and
friendly during my research field trip.
Lastly, but certainly not least, I would like to express my overwhelming
appreciation to my family and friends for their love and support throughout
the process of writing this book, particularly my partner, Peter Johnson and my
mother, Margaret Burt who supported me so well through this project. To
Douglas and Diana James and Helen Cole for their great love and support and
also for their kind assistance with the manuscript, Annie and Karl Sargent, Nic
and Narelle Burt, Peter Burt and Jeff and Toni Williams. Without the love, sup-
port and encouragement of all of my family and friends I would not have writ-
ten this monograph.
List of Photos
1 President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1933 26
2 Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek in 1945 52
3 Chiang Kai-shek and Madame Chiang with Lieutenant General Stilwell 112
4 Secretary of State, Cordell Hull 162
5 Chiang Kai-shek, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill at the Cairo
Conference 185
6 Madame Chiang and with Churchill, Roosevelt, Chiang and the military
staff 186