Blog number 217 09 September 2008
President Franklin Roosevelt appointed General Hurley as an intermediary between General Stilwell and Chiang K'ai-Shek because of the "tension" between the two. Hurley immediately asked to be made an ambassador, but that was refused.
Roosevelt then startled Marshall, who had recommended Hurley, by asking that a former Sears CEO, Donald Nelson, go too. When Marshall asked why, Roosevelt said that he wanted to get Nelson out of the country.
Marshall sympathized and consented on condition that Nelson was not to meddle with policy or strategy, but was to confine himself to selling razor blades. For purposes of public announcement this was translated as "studying China's economy."
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