Where the News Ends:
CHAMBERLIN, WILLIAM HENRY
WHERE the NEWS ENDS By William Henry Chamberlin A UN Seat for Communist China? It is becoming increasingly probable that the first big test of nerve, skill and firmness in foreign...
...Stevenson, in the same article, suggested an abandonment of United States resistance to admission of Red China to the UN, and more recently he remarked that it might be difficult to continue keeping Red China out...
...It is pernicious nonsense to say that non-recognition can be equated with an ostrich-like refusal to recognize the "existence" of Communist China...
...The recent Commonwealth Conference served as another forum for advancing this program of appeasement...
...In Europe there has been no sign of weakening or wavering...
...Our purpose in withholding admission and recognition is to give heart and confidence to our allies on Formosa, and to anti-Communists in other Asian countries...
...It is becoming increasingly probable that the first big test of nerve, skill and firmness in foreign policy for the Kennedy Administration will come in the Far East...
...This has taken the form of statements by high British officials, including Foreign Secretary Lord Home, and of inspired leaks to foreign correspondents in the British capital...
...The issue also may figure prominently in the coming talks between Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and President John F. Kennedy...
...Even if this should come off, it is extremely doubtful that the Soviet Union, even if it so desired, could prevent Red China from seeking and ultimately achieving the status of a nuclear power...
...Whatever may fairly be said in criticism of some aspects of the foreign policy of the Eisenhower Administration, it held the line in the Orient...
...Both Adlai Stevenson, Ambassador to the United Nations, in an article in Foreign Affairs for January 1960, and Thomas K. Finletter, Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in a book on American foreign policy, are on record as favoring a plebiscite in Formosa to determine its form of government...
...This seems to ignore the fact that there is a recognized government on Formosa, that of the Republic of China, with which we are in formal treaty alliance...
...Nothing in Communist Chinese public statements and actions would seem to qualify this regime for membership in an organization supposedly composed of "peace-loving" states...
...Nor could the admission of Red China to the UN, or its diplomatic recognition by the United States, be justified on the ground that this is simply acceptance of realities...
...The bombardment in due course ceased...
...But this is getting far ahead of present realities...
...When the Chinese Communists put on their big bluff of launching an intensive bombardment of Quemoy and Matsu in the autumn of 1958, and a vociferous chorus of faint hearts on both sides of the Atlantic was predicting the direst calamities if the United States did not pull the rug from under Chiang Kai-shek and force the evacuation of the islands, Eisenhower and Dulles refused to panic...
...It is not surprising, therefore, that a propaganda campaign has been launched in London in favor of the admission of Red China...
...Another argument is that China should be recognized in the interest of international disarmament...
...Americans, especially relatives of Korean War casualties, know very well and to their sorrow that Red China exists...
...In my opinion, all the arguments for admission do not hold up under examination...
...It remains to be seen whether a nuclear test ban treaty, with satisfactory safeguards, can be arranged with the Soviet Union...
...To repudiate the legitimacy of this government by trying to stage a plebiscite would be the surest way to inaugurate chaos on Formosa and pave the way for possible seizure of the island by the Communists...
...One argument that is often put forward is that Communist China would be amenable to the influence of the world organization and moderate its policies of violence and aggression...
...But some men who are high in the councils of the new Administration are on record as favoring substantial revisions of this policy of defending Formosa and other countries in the pathway of Red Chinese aggression...
...But in the Far East the ideological line of the new Administration looks less firm...
...the Kuomintang flag is still flying over Quemoy and Matsu...
...Of this there is not the slightest probability...
...In view of this pressure from London and the prospect that some votes in the UN may shift on the issue (for example, Brazil's new Government seems to favor admission), is there a serious case for changing our position against admitting Communist China to the UN...
...There was no war and there was no appeasement...
...Apart from geographically isolated West Berlin, there is no point in Europe that seems vulnerable, politically, economically or militarily...
...One need only look at the Soviet record in the UN, with special reference to the lesson of Hungary...
Vol. 44 • March 1961 • No. 13
