Mao Meets the Oklahoma Cowboy: Patrick Hurley and the China Policy, 1944-45

This is the incredible story of FDR's Oklahoma cowboy envoy and American policy toward China in the final years of WWII. It has been said that truth is indeed stranger than fiction. The tale of how Patrick Hurley went from entertaining FDR with jokes and stories from the Old West with his pal Will Rogers to implementing America's policy toward China, virtually single-handedly and on-the-fly, is indeed stranger than any fiction. The incongruity of the cowboy from Oklahoma interacting with Mao Zedong, to the astonishment and incredulity of both, goes beyond anything that Hollywood could have conjured up.