ABSTRACT
Chiang Kai-shek retained command in China, and the British exercised authority in India and in attempts to reconquer Burma. American and British aims in the China-Burma-India (CBI) diverged on the question of the role that China should and could play in the war. The general received command of all US forces in the China-Burma-India theater as well as serving as Roosevelt's personal representative to Chiang and administrator of lend-lease aid. Chiang placed him in charge of Chinese forces that were assisting the British in Burma in an effort to keep open China's supply route from the West. When World War II began in 1939, the British, with their control over foreign policy, declared that India was at war with Germany. With Japan's conquest of Malaya and Burma, the war came to India's doorstep. The conquest of Burma and the supply route to China had not been worth the investment in blood and material.
