Where the News Ends
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
WHERE the NEWS ENDS By William Henry Chamberlin Formosa Tests U.S. Foreign Policy AT THIS WRITING, it is uncertain how far Red Chinese action will be pressed against the offshore...
...WHERE the NEWS ENDS By William Henry Chamberlin Formosa Tests U.S...
...It seems evident, however, that if American air and naval forces stood by inactive while Communist invasion forces overran the offshore islands and destroyed the considerable units of the Nationalist Army stationed there, the consequences would be serious for U.S...
...The Strait of Formosa could be the scene of a turning point in the cold war...
...Should we fail to carry out this obligation, or fumble it by acting too late and with insufficient force, this might well be the dislodged stone that would start an avalanche of defeat and humiliation in Europe as well as in Asia...
...Unfortunately, I think, our specific pledge of aid against attack is limited to Formosa and the adjacent Pescadores Islands...
...Whatever may be the trend of future developments, the United States is clearly on the spot in Formosa...
...Even under the extreme provocation of the Red Chinese invasion of Korea we did not, unfortunately in my opinion, resort to such measures as a blockade of the Chinese coast, air strikes at military and industrial targets in China and assistance to landings of Nationalist troops in an effort to stimulate revolt against the Communist tyranny...
...The fundamental issue is whether the bipartisan U.S...
...Cooperation with Chiang Kai-shek's Government in the defense of Formosa is our business, and ours alone...
...In Asia, as in Europe, we have sought no more than the defensive maintenance of the territorial status quo...
...At stake is much more than the island of Formosa or the survival of an area of Chinese resistance to Communist tyranny...
...We have never made clear what we would do in the event of an attack in force on Quemoy and Matsu...
...We have repeatedly warned the Chinese Reds of the grave consequences of disregarding this pledge...
...The United States cannot be accused of seeking the quarrel which Red China seems bent on precipitating...
...prestige and would accelerate the growth of defeatism in Formosa...
...If this were not the case we should never have undertaken such an obligation...
...It would involve knocking out air bases on the Chinese mainland, silencing shore batteries, smashing any concentration of shipping designed for an invasion...
...It is impossible in modern warfare to follow the example of the minute-men at Bunker Hill and hold fire until one sees the "whites of the eyes" of an invading force approaching Formosa and the Pescadores...
...policy, followed by both the Truman and Eisenhower Administrations, of peace through defensive alliances and the deterrent threat of American air, naval and nuclear power, is really effective or merely a shield of paper-mache...
...Nothing could be more disastrous and dangerous than irresolution and vacillation either in the capital or in the Strait of Formosa...
...Foreign Policy AT THIS WRITING, it is uncertain how far Red Chinese action will be pressed against the offshore Nationalist islands of the Quemoy and Matsu groups and whether plans for the "liberation" of Formosa itself are in an advanced state of preparation...
...We are not handicapped, as we were in Korea, by the manifold inhibitions of the UN or by the backseat driving of "allies" with a tendency to develop an extreme case of cold feet when anyone came up with a plan that promised victory...
...But we are pledged, by Presidential decision ratified by a virtually unanimous vote in both Houses of Congress, to the defense of Formosa...
...The consequences of failure, if our obligation is put to the test, will be grave, even tragic, for our entire foreign policy...
...All that is certain is that air and artillery action against Quemoy has been carried on with unprecedented violence...
...The consequences of success, of inflicting a decisive defeat on the Red Chinese invaders will be equally disastrous for the tyrants in Peking, whose myth of invincibility will be destroyed...
...This would be a sure formula for defeat for the free world, because the UN, cut by half a dozen schisms, is about as effective an instrument against the swift, ruthless strokes of aggressive Soviet and Chinese Communism as the ghost of the Holy Roman Empire was against the lightning moves of Napoleon...
...The defense of Formosa against direct aggression cannot be referred to the UN in the timid assurance that the UN will perhaps shake a futile finger of reproof by passing a resolution of censure...
...The defense of Formosa is not a problem that we can shuffle off by calling in the United Nations...
...The defense of Formosa is a direct treaty obligation of the U.S., recently reaffirmed by President Eisenhower and Secretary Dulles...
...What is needed most is a fighting spirit in our Far Eastern naval command, backed by an equally firm sense of purpose in Washington...
...Given our overwhelming naval predominance and our monopoly, in this area, of nuclear weapons, which we should not hesitate to use in case of necessity, the defense of Formosa and the offshore islands should be quite feasible...
...Defense, to be effective, must be construed in a very broad sense...
Vol. 41 • September 1958 • No. 33
