ABSTRACT
The request by Mao Zedong and Chou En-lai to visit Washington was never properly forwarded; it was merely cited by Hurley, in a personal complaint to Franklin D. Roosevelt, as further evidence of what he regarded as a plot by Left-leaning Foreign Service officers to influence the United States in favour of Mao. America has intervened in every country where her troops and supplies have gone. This intervention may not have been intended, and may not have been direct. When Hurley in Washington publicly rejected aid to the communists, their protest was still mild. Mao argued further that between the people of China and the people of the United States there were ‘strong ties of sympathy, understanding and mutual interest. The communists are certain to play a large, if not dominant, part in China’s future. The communists received altogether one ton of military supplies of any description from the Nationalists, according to a report of the China Defence League.
