Memoranda from Secretary of State James F. Byrnes and George Elsey to President Harry S. Truman
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THE SECRETARY OF STATE
WASHINGTON
September 3, 1945.
MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT:
Re: CHINESE MATTERS ARISING OUT OF CONVERSATIONS WITH
T. V. SOONG.
1. Military Mission.
Chiang desires a military mission to be known as American
Military Advisory Group to assist and advise the Chinese Government
in the creation of modern military forces. The Generalissimo would
like to arrange for the retention of the mission in China initially
for a period of five years and would like to have General Wedemyer
appointed as its head. I recommend that as far as possible we
endeavor to meet Chiang's wishes because it is obviously to our
advantage to have the Chinese look to us for military advice.
It is not possible, however, under existing legislation for
us to send such a mission for a definite five year period. Under
section 524 of Title 10 of the United States Code we can make such
detail outside of the American continent only "during war or a
declared national emergency." As the war and the national emergency
are not in a legal sense terminated, the mission could be sent out
now. It should be possible to secure the necessary legislation for
the continuance of the mission before the present war and national
emergency are legally terminated.
2. Lend-Lease Military Equipment.
6 - ARCHIVES "NATIONAL RECORDS SERVICE AND
I. V. Soong inquires whether we are prepared to complete our
commitment to equip 100 Chinese divisions? This commitment is said to
have been made to Chiang by President Roosevelt at Cairo. The commit-
ment apparently is not in writing. Mr. Hopkins affirms that some
such commitment was made at Cairo when action in the Chinese theatre
was agreed upon, and apparently after Teheran, Chiang, who was disturbed
by the postponement at Teheran of the action planned for the Chinese
theatre, was assured that the commitment would be kept. The form of
the commitment apparently was vague and loose. While no one anticipated
the Japanese war would end so quickly, it is hard to believe that the
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