The “Cairo Declaration” called for Japan’s unconditional surrender and her expulsion from territories “taken by violence and greed.” All Chinese territory “stolen” by Japan would be returned. Overall, though, Roosevelt found the Chinese leader weak and indecisive, and he left Cairo less confident that Chiang could play his assigned role after the war. No doubt the president’s judgment was affected by the growing drumbeat of despair among American observers in China, who in late 1943 grew steadily more critical of the Chiang Kai-shek regime. They spoke of widespread governmental corruption and
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