Re. Mao and FDR: Covert Action Quarterly had a fascinating piece on this last year. I'm appending a few of the opening paragraphs below, but the lengthy text is worth reading in full, not least to see some wonderful historical photos included. FDR was a complex figure in this regard; no socialist, clearly in the capitalist camp, he nonetheless had a fairly enlightened attitude towards global development, not seeing it in the rigidly imperialistic zero-sum game way that so many of his successors have, who did everything they could to dismantle what remained of his progressive legacy.
CAQ -- Unknown for decades, declassified documents show that FDR’s mail was deliberately diverted and falsified to prevent a historic meeting with Mao Zedong that might have shortened the war, changed history, and reshaped the modern world.
Historians cite the 1972 meeting between Mao Zedong and Richard Nixon as the original spark for U.S.-China Globalization in which the U.S. and China began cooperating to industrialize China and integrate the two countries’ economies.
But a much younger Mao Zedong had tried to interest President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Globalization 27 years earlier, and history would have turned out differently if Roosevelt had agreed.
The Korean and Vietnam Wars—which resulted in millions of deaths—could have been avoided along with the Taiwan Straits crisis of 1958, which nearly resulted in a nuclear apocalypse, and Taiwan would not have been separated from Mother China.
On January 9, 1945, Mao Zedong reached out from his headquarter in Yan’an to President Roosevelt. U.S. Army Major Ray Cromley—acting chief of the U.S. mission in Yan’an— forwarded this message to U.S. Army headquarters in Chungking:
Mao and Zhou will be immediately available either singly or together for exploratory conference at Washington should President Roosevelt express desire to receive them at White House as leaders of a primary Chinese party.
Thank you Godfrey for your illuminating information on China. I have been ignorant of most of what you write. I took Colin Brace's recommendation to read your blog.
The rehabilitation of Mao's record during the first period of China's revolution has got to be the basis for Xi's calls for the reform and strengthening of the Communist Party and a renewed emphasis on shared wealth. I have to admit I was confused by the deluge of anti-Mao propaganda as anyone and am glad to see an effort to reverse this, Mike Liston
Mao was hated and vilified by the West for obvious reasons, but Deng, an extremely vindictive man, hated him because Mao treated him as little more than a office assistant. Deng's period in office proved Mao right: he was a disaster.
Re. Mao and FDR: Covert Action Quarterly had a fascinating piece on this last year. I'm appending a few of the opening paragraphs below, but the lengthy text is worth reading in full, not least to see some wonderful historical photos included. FDR was a complex figure in this regard; no socialist, clearly in the capitalist camp, he nonetheless had a fairly enlightened attitude towards global development, not seeing it in the rigidly imperialistic zero-sum game way that so many of his successors have, who did everything they could to dismantle what remained of his progressive legacy.
CAQ -- Unknown for decades, declassified documents show that FDR’s mail was deliberately diverted and falsified to prevent a historic meeting with Mao Zedong that might have shortened the war, changed history, and reshaped the modern world.
Historians cite the 1972 meeting between Mao Zedong and Richard Nixon as the original spark for U.S.-China Globalization in which the U.S. and China began cooperating to industrialize China and integrate the two countries’ economies.
But a much younger Mao Zedong had tried to interest President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on Globalization 27 years earlier, and history would have turned out differently if Roosevelt had agreed.
The Korean and Vietnam Wars—which resulted in millions of deaths—could have been avoided along with the Taiwan Straits crisis of 1958, which nearly resulted in a nuclear apocalypse, and Taiwan would not have been separated from Mother China.
On January 9, 1945, Mao Zedong reached out from his headquarter in Yan’an to President Roosevelt. U.S. Army Major Ray Cromley—acting chief of the U.S. mission in Yan’an— forwarded this message to U.S. Army headquarters in Chungking:
Mao and Zhou will be immediately available either singly or together for exploratory conference at Washington should President Roosevelt express desire to receive them at White House as leaders of a primary Chinese party.
[...]
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/06/23/how-fdr-was-manipulated-and-betrayed-by-his-own-naval-intelligence-chief-in-the-fateful-last-months-of-wwii/
Thank you Godfrey for your illuminating information on China. I have been ignorant of most of what you write. I took Colin Brace's recommendation to read your blog.
The rehabilitation of Mao's record during the first period of China's revolution has got to be the basis for Xi's calls for the reform and strengthening of the Communist Party and a renewed emphasis on shared wealth. I have to admit I was confused by the deluge of anti-Mao propaganda as anyone and am glad to see an effort to reverse this, Mike Liston
Mao was hated and vilified by the West for obvious reasons, but Deng, an extremely vindictive man, hated him because Mao treated him as little more than a office assistant. Deng's period in office proved Mao right: he was a disaster.