At 12:15 PM the presidential sedan pulled up at the Senate entrance. Madame Chiang Kai-shek stepped from the black car wearing an equally black gown slit on the side but closed at the throat. She strode quickly and confidently into the building. In the Senate chambers Vice President Wallace introduced her and she gave an extemporaneous speech that ended with a standing ovation. The Madame was just warming up.
Wearing her Chinese Air Force pin, she stood next to the House Doorkeeper as he intoned "Madame Chiang Kai-shek!" Flash bulbs exploded and newsreel cameras whirred during four minutes of applause. Speaker Sam Rayburn yelled at the photographers and the klieg lights went out. Madame Chiang then stepped up to the same rostrum where President Roosevelt had asked Congress for a declaration of war against her country's tormentor. In a "cultured English tinged with a Georgia accent," China's First Lady spoke into the radio network microphones.
"In speaking to Congress I am literally speaking to the American people," she said. With her right fist holding a silken hanky she raised it again and again to drive home her main point: Japan posed a greater threat to America than did Hitler and American aid to China failed to match the threat. The Madame also slipped in an old Chinese proverb: "It takes little effort to watch the other fellow carry the load."
Henry Luce's Life magazine gushed, "Mme. Chiang's three hours at the Washington Capitol on February 18 are inevitably a part of U.S. history. What she said and did there was up to the level of world events. Not only were Congressman completely captivated by her but also hard-boiled reporters confessed they had never seen anything like it." Time magazine, another Luce publication, reported "The Senate is not in the habit of rising to its feet to applaud; for Madame Chiang, it rose and thundered."
Eleanor Roosevelt wrote in her column "My Day," "When I saw her little, slim figure in her straight Chinese gown coming down the aisle, she seemed overshadowed by the men around her. I could not help a great feeling of pride
