PATRICK J. HURLEY - AUTOGRAPH 01/15/1946 - HFSID 293500

PATRICK J. HURLEY
He signs and dates a small card, signed less than 3 months after he resigned as the US Ambassador to China to protest the direction of US policy
Signature: "Jan. 15th 46/Patrick J. Hurley", 5x3 card. Patrick J. Hurley (1883-1963), a colonel in the American Expeditionary Force in France during World War I, was President Hoover's Secretary of War (1929-1933). In August 1944, President Roosevelt sent him on a mission to China, where he soon sided with General Claire Chennault and against General Joseph Stilwell in the burgeoning battle over US China policy. (Hurley came to believe in strongly supporting Chinese Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek. In November, he reluctantly accepted the post of Ambassador. One year later (November 25, 1946), he resigned his post, accusing State Department officials of favoring the communist side in renewed Chinese civil war. These charges helped fuel the "China Lobby" which would later oppose US recognition of communist China, and of the McCarthy era claim that the US government was riddled with communist sympathizers. Hurley was unsuccessful three times (1946, 1948 and 1952) in bids to represent New Mexico in the US Senate.From the collection of Ralph Errington Ward (1926-2009). Ward, a fighter pilot and squadron commander in the China-Burma-India Theater of World War II, who went on to become President and CEO of Cheseborough-Ponds, Inc., transforming the cosmetics firm into a major home product conglomerate. Toned at edges. Mounting residue on verso. Otherwise, fine condition.