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Frances PerkinsFrances Perkins
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mentioned, by that time.

Interviewer:

Would you have any way of making any sort of an estimate about that?

Perkins:

No, I don't think I would, except that among other things that Roosevelt got Stalin to agree to at Yalta or Teheran, I don't know which one, was the recognition of Chiang's government, which would indicate that he still had confidence in him. What I should say is that he perhaps didn't have any great confidence in Chiang's striking military abilities, or even his political abilities, but that he was all there was to deal with. Who else would you deal with? There wasn't anybody.

Interviewer:

At that time, no. That's tactical. But did he trust him, did he like him, did he appreciate him and think him a first-rate man in any way?

Perkins:

Well, I don't remember. I never heard him say that. I remember thinking, on one occasion, when the Chinese situation was being talked about, that it's after all the same old story: East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet. Certainly we didn't understand the Chinese. We didn't understand them at all, and it was quite clear to me that they didn't understand us either. I could say to myself, “Well, why should they understand us? You know, we send one explosive





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