Posted on 04/04/2018 7:36:05 AM PDT by mac_truck
Anna Chennault, for many years one of the most visible private citizens in Washington as a Republican fundraiser, writer and Chinese-born, anti-communist lobbyist who dabbled in foreign intrigue after the death of her husband, the renowned leader of the Flying Tigers in China and Burma in World War II, died Friday at her home in Washington. She was 94.
Her death, in her apartment at the Watergate complex, was announced today. The cause was complications of a stroke she suffered in December, her daughter Cynthia Chennault said.
In her memoir photographs, wearing a high-necked white ao dai, Chennault appears with her husband, Maj. Gen. Claire L. Chennault; with Presidents John F. Kennedy, Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford; with J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI; with Gen. William C. Westmoreland, commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, and with Nguyen Cao Ky, the South Vietnamese vice president who fled to the United States with the fall of Saigon in 1975.
Except for her husband’s picture, taken a year before he died in 1958, it is a gallery of Chennault’s Washington regalia, assembled over many years as an airline executive, hostess, Republican stalwart, advocate for the Chinese Nationalists and South Vietnam, and staunch opponent of the Communist regime that seized power in China in 1949.
She was also a vice president of the Flying Tiger Line, her husband’s postwar cargo operation; a writer of novels, poetry and nonfiction books; a Voice of America broadcaster; and the center of a social whirl at her Watergate penthouse that drew in Cabinet members, congressmen, diplomats, foreign dignitaries and journalists.
(Excerpt) Read more at staradvertiser.com ...
A gracious lady and I daresay top quality eye candy.
The general left his first wife, the former Nell Thompson, by whom he had perhaps a half dozen children, to marry Anna, who then had two daughters.
Wow, another name from my youth ... had no idea she was still alive. RIP ...
RIP Anna.
Last Sunday I posted the latest episode of my podcast. The subject was World War II in Burma, in 1941 and 1942. Of course I mentioned the part the Flying Tigers played in that conflict.
http://www.blubrry.com/hoseasia
“A gracious lady and I daresay top quality eye candy.”
Please.....dare.
And a staunch anti-communist on top of that.
Rest In Peace Anna Chenault.
An amazing life well lived!
The Flying Tigers were mercenaries-——and help make the Soong family even richer.
.
My father was with the 14th Air Service Group in the CBI, an all Chinese American USAAF unit. Flying Tiger ping.
Around 1995 I gout to meet General Robert L. Scot, author of “God Is My Co-Pilot”.
It was at a meeting of a South Georgia historical society. He was there speaking and selling books with all the profits to go to the Warner Robbins AFB museum.
He had to have been pushing 90 but was still sharp and very charismatic. He drove down from Macon with his Daughter. I noticed that after the meeting, he got into his Cadillac and drove back with his Daughter as passenger. This was at night too.
One thing I remember is he was not allowed to bomb certain bridges near the end of WWII because Chairman Mao had vetoed it.
The Flying Tigers were mercenaries-——and help make the Soong family even richer
Yeah, but they shot down a lot of sons of Nippon, is what they were being paid for.
RIP.
boy you sure know your history.
RIP
I was reading an article about the P-40. It was apparently a better fighter than has been generally thought.
For one thing, it had a faster roll rating than the zero. I think I know what that means but not sure.
Surprised, she wore Vietnamese attire?
The Flying Tigers by Russell Whelan and published in 1942 is still a good read. All members of the American Volunteer Group are listed.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.