For instance?
Henry and Claire Boothe Luce. To them, the Chiangs were saints one and two, absolutely remarkable people devoted to democracy. I don't know how many times they were on the cover of Time or Life. So their mythology grew in America.

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How did she win Americans over?
She never demanded aid. She once described working for the Shanghai YWCA in the 1930s: "I put on my best hat and shoes and furs and go in and give the gentlemen the opportunity to give to a good cause." She manipulated Congress and the media the same way. She handled herself brilliantly. Here was this tiny woman with a gorgeous body who was flirtatious and funny and spoke fluent American with a charming southern accent. She made congressmen feel big and important. She spoke with enormous feeling about China as the bastion of democracy, how the Chinese were waging the fight America should be waging against the Japanese.

Did she believe in democracy?
Eleanor Roosevelt said, "Madame Chiang can talk about democracy, but she doesn't quite know how to live it." She could comparmentalize, say the appropriate thing to each audience to get what she wanted. But she was a genuine patriot. She was much more aware than Chiang of the threats in the world. She understood the "foreign devils."

What does that mean?
Their culture said they were the center of the world, the Middle Kingdom, and everyone else was a barbarian. Chiang didn't give a damn about anyone outside China; he just wanted to be treated as the most important person in China. He was furious when neither Roosevelt nor Churchill met him at the airport in Cairo in 1943, after he'd wangled his way into that conference; it was a big loss of face.  Remember, Chiang was a Confucian, a typical Chinese. The only thing that mattered was face—not what was actually going on, but how it looked to the world.

Wasn't May-ling his translator at Cairo?
She "translated" most of his foreign correspondence and meetings. She never literally translated anything, though. Chiang had a huge temper and very little education. Nothing beyond his specific world interested him. So she had to make whatever he said sound thoughtful, soften it. She mediated everything. The one time she didn't was with Gen. Joseph Stilwell.

What happened?
She was in the States when George Marshall had FDR send that telegram to Chiang threatening to cut off Lend-Lease aid unless Stilwell took over command of the Chinese army. Instead Chiang ejected Stilwell from China; that wouldn't have happened if May-ling had been there. She would have worked something out. Remember face: that telegram made Chiang look like a recalcitrant fool. Stilwell had to go.

Solely because of face?
Stilwell knew how extensive the corruption was. He understood Chiang was far more interested in fighting the Chinese Communists than in fighting the Japanese. As far as Chiang was concerned, the United States or the Soviet Union would take care of the Japanese sooner or later.

Who benefited from Stilwell's recall?
Roosevelt's envoy Patrick Hurley, who thought he could reconcile the Nationalists and the Communists to fight the Japanese and create a unified China. General Chennault, who insisted all the Chinese army needed to win was American air support. And May-ling's brother T. V. Most historians agree it appears T. V. used Lend-Lease aid to enrich himself and his family. I've never been able to get definitive proof, nor has anyone else. But there is a mountain of suggestive evidence.

How do you see Madame Chiang?
As a very powerful woman whose power had real limits. She told Stilwell, "I've practically killed my husband but I can't move him two inches." She was very frustrated she couldn't get him to see anybody else's point of view—or how they appeared to other countries.

This article originally appeared in the January/February 2010 issue of World War II magazine.

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