DEAD HAND OVER ASIA
Clubb, O. Edmund
Dead Hand over Asia By 0. EDMUND CLUBB AT THE END of World War II, the peoples of Asia were struggling toward escape from colonial bondage. A decade later, they are caught up in the process of...
...it is prepared to fulfill in "deeds, not words" a policy of "trade, not aid" in the vast crescent of uncommitted countries that sweeps from Japan to Egypt...
...But Clemenceau once pointed out, with reference to an oft-quoted aphorism of Talleyrand's, "Politics is often the art of choosing between two solutions which are both bad...
...They laid down ten principles which, they said, would enable nations "to live together in peace...
...Rumania agrees to help Indonesia open new oil wells and exploit its mineral resources, and East Germany extends Indonesia a $7 million credit to cover the purchase of machinery for a sugar-mill...
...But as they move forward, they pause on occasion to lend an ear to words out of Peking and Moscow, and at times seem swayed...
...But the 1951 peace treaty with Japan did not fully implement the Cairo Declaration's provision on Formosa: title was taken from Japan, but was not conferred on China...
...The South Asian tour of Premier Nikolai A. Bulganin and Party Leader Nikita S. Khrushchev at the end of the year strengthened the new ties...
...Foreign Service officer...
...London, on the other hand, contends that all the coastal islands should go to the Communists and that only if the Nationalists are dislodged will a cease-fire be possible...
...The Soviet output is complemented by the production of such highly industrialized countries as Czechoslovakia, Poland, and East Germany...
...American public opinion rose in opposition...
...alliance and help the Nationalists recover the China mainland...
...That is why he made no serious effort to attack the mainland when "unleashed" in February 1953...
...General G. C. Stewart testified to the House Appropriations subcommittee July 12, 1954, "we have shipped equipment [to Formosa] from excess stock . . . without charge against the funds appropriated in this bill other than the charges necessary to rehabilitate the equipment and ship it...
...Finally, in February 1956, the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union approved the dumping overboard of some of the outworn lumber of Stalinism and adopted instead a "socialist internationalism" pliant enough to accommodate many political faiths...
...The intent of the Cairo Declaration has never been fulfilled, and the de jure sovereignty over Formosa, not having been fixed by the Japanese peace treaty, remains to be determined...
...as good neighbors and develop friendly cooperation...
...In addition, the Soviet production of industrial goods generally has been increasing since 1948 at a substantially more rapid rate than that of either the United States or other NATO countries—or Japan...
...And on January 26, in the testimony of Dulles' Assistant Secretary for Far Eastern Affairs before the House Appropriations subcommittee, U.S...
...and 3) in due course, when the situation had eased, the de jure status of Formosa and the Pescadores to be determined at an international conference...
...is willing to meet capitalism in the field of economic competition...
...At the April 1955 Bandung Conference, 29 Asian and African nations took a united stand that "universal disarmament is an absolute necessity for the preservation of peace...
...mission arrived on Formosa in May 1951 seems to have reached $2 billion again...
...But his strategy is to wait for a World War, in which the United States and the Soviet Union would do the heavy slugging, to bring the Mandate of Heaven back to him...
...Whether it is possible to do as well today as a year ago is open to question...
...On March 18, 1954, his National Assembly more specifically called upon the United States and other Pacific Powers to form an anti-Communist O. EDMUND CLUBB, a specialist in Communist strategy in Asia, served for 20 years in East Asia as a U.S...
...There is some obscurity in the overall figures on aid to Formosa...
...In the face of the economic flanking movement by "socialist internationalism" in South Asia, a revision of our Asian policy which puts Formosa in truer perspective is urgently needed...
...Instead he suggested in an interview with James Reston of the New York Times on July 20 of the same year, as the Korean truce drew close, that the United States should work toward the creation of a wider security pact in the West Pacific, with Formosa included, against Communist China...
...It was stuck on dead center in Formosa, unable to go forward into war or to back away from the obligations it had assumed, unable even to negotiate regarding Formosa or the offshore islands except insofar as Chiang might consent...
...in 1938, on the eve of World War II, produced approximately 18 million metric tons of steel...
...Seventh Fleet in the Formosa Strait when the fighting in Korea was over...
...America's alienation from Asian trends of thought was nakedly exposed...
...It still proposes to smother revolution with a blanket of military hardware and to "go it alone" as far as economic aid is concerned in Asia...
...used steel for only 445,-000 units...
...It was therefore left without new ownership, a no-man's-land in the Cold War, shielded by the United States...
...Thus the United States, despite the loss of the $3.5 billion invested in the Nationalists while they were on the mainland, continues to pour hundreds of millions of dollars into Formosa...
...And it is on Formosa that we are bogged down the deepest...
...American commitments to the Formosa regime were involved...
...Commonwealth opinion as developed in March 1955 was suggestive of the possible basis for an initial settlement: 1) the Nationalists to evacuate the offshore islands...
...The Communist bloc countries, including China, have worked for several years at developing an interlocking trade among themselves, to constitute what Stalin in 1952 termed a "parallel world market...
...that its 1955 production was 45 million tons...
...The bloc commands the necessary raw materials, industrial plant, and technical personnel...
...The new reorientation undoubtedly facilitates the approach of the Communist bloc to the political philosophy and economic programs of the Asian nations...
...Dulles boasted later to Life...
...By the time the Japanese peace treaty was negotiated, Formosa had been fitted into the design of an American "island defense chain...
...Statesmanship demands that the United States anticipate growing world pressure for the elimination of the danger of war in the Formosa Strait...
...Chinese de facto rule was introduced into Formosa (and the Pescadores) after V-J Day, and when the Nationalists were defeated by the Chinese Communists on the mainland the rump National government took refuge on Formosa...
...The American national interest demands that the United States regain freedom of movement, to enable it to evolve an effective Asian policy...
...But, persistence in our isolation is increasingly dangerous...
...Security Council voted January 31 to take up the matter as "a situation threatening international peace and security...
...that its production went down to nine million tons during wartime, but it still fought on...
...The "parallel world market," in short, is advancing its frontiers into South Asia and the Middle East...
...Peking and Moscow had been at work since 1954 setting up a new fabric of political relationships in Asia...
...The U.S.S.R., for instance, buys rice from Burma, wheat from Canada, and capital equipment from Western Europe...
...It is beyond the scope of this article to analyze the Soviet economic strength in detail...
...Formosa does not belong to the United States...
...And has this made Formosa strong...
...Meanwhile, the peoples of Asia drive against the remnant authority of colonialism and strive in sweat and tears to lift themselves up from a depressed economic status...
...When President Eisenhower told Congress January 24, 1955, that a situation was developing in the Formosa Strait which "seriously imperils the peace and our security" and asked for authority "to engage in whatever operations may be required" for the defense of Formosa, the world took alarm overnight...
...2) a broader international interim guarantee to be extended to Formosa, with a tacit truce in the Formosa Strait...
...But Japan, France, and the British Commonwealth had backed away from Dulles' thesis, expounded at the February SEATO meeting in Bangkok, that war in any one sector of East Asia would automatically involve the whole front...
...But the total amount granted since the U.S...
...policy was confirmed as contemplating the maintenance of a constant military threat against China, in a Cold War led by the United States and waged by Formosa and "other Far Eastern groups," in the hope that China would eventually experience an internal breakdown...
...The purported danger centered on the Nationalist-held offshore islands, particularly Matsu and Quemoy...
...It was mostly our own doing that brought us into that position...
...It was in January 1954 that the new American doctrine of atomic "massive retaliation" was unveiled by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles...
...The U.N...
...In March 1955 the United States seemed indeed to stand on the brink of war with China, as Mr...
...so were Japan and several others which the United States counts in its camp...
...The Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), conceived in March while the "massive retaliation" thesis was still being elaborated, was finally formed in September...
...and that the scheduled output for 1960 is 68 million tons...
...The Communist planners need not wait upon the profit-motive of private entrepreneurs, but can undertake large and even "unprofitable" projects at will, assigning any desired priorities to govern materials and labor, basing the whole on a coordinated international division of labor...
...In 1955, the U.S.S.R...
...Of course, our steel output topped 117 million tons in 1955...
...The nation stopped short of the final plunge...
...The challenge is blunt: the U.S.S.R...
...The open economic challenge to the West was made after the Communist bloc had already begun to establish closer political, economic, and cultural ties with a number of non-Communist countries...
...For we have followed an Asian policy that gives us a military position in areas like South Korea, South Vietnam, and Formosa, but deprives us of freedom of maneuver...
...Ill The United States was cut off from its principal allies on the question of the Chinese offshore islands...
...But the United States turned out more than nine million passenger cars and trucks in that year, whereas the U.S.S.R...
...II It was inevitable that a breach between the United States and its chief coalition allies would follow...
...The burden of Formosa grows heavier, and American involvement increases as time passes...
...membership...
...Washington's official position was that there had been no such commitment...
...The reason for the omission was simple: with the outbreak of war in Korea in June 1950 the idea of "letting the dust settle" as regards China was swept into the discard...
...The President's foreign aid message of March 19 to Congress did not reveal any fundamental change in the Administration's thinking on "the Communist challenge...
...Its military alliance with Chiang Kai-shek's regime hampers the development of close relations with the Colombo Powers, the fulcrum of South Asia, and plagues our associations with our NATO allies—who are the closest to our own destiny...
...for military, construction, or foreign-trade purposes, after subtraction of tonnage used in the production of motor-cars, refrigerators, and gadgetry, probably surpasses that available for such "national" purposes in the United States...
...But it is noteworthy that the U.S.S.R...
...The New York Times reported from Formosa in July 1955: "This island seems to have become so dependent on United States aid that its stoppage would result in a collapse...
...He was director of the Office of Chinese Affairs in the Department of State when he retired from government service in 1952...
...The 1943 Cairo Declaration had provided that it was the "purpose" of the United States, Britain, and China "that all territories Japan has stolen from China, such as Manchuria, Formosa, and the Pescadores, shall be returned to the Republic of China...
...China, turning around, develops its trade relations with both East Germany and Indonesia and buys raw rubber from Ceylon...
...Only by rejoining its chief allies as regards "the Formosa question" can the United States regain that freedom of maneuver it needs to meet the new challenge of the Communist bloc in Asia...
...The practical working out of the program is already visible, and shows the strategy sound...
...Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek has an unmistakable objective—to return to China...
...The entire politico-economic combine is pushing ahead into a new economic era in which light metals, electronics and automation, nuclear power, and centralized planning will play important roles...
...President Truman in his Executive Order of June 27, 1950, said that "the determination of the future status of Formosa must await the restoration of security in the Pacific, a peace settlement with Japan, or consideration by the U.N...
...Its Asian policy is blighted by the nature of its association with Formosa...
...IV The Communist bloc manifestly enjoys certain initial technical advantages as regards "economic cooperation" in Asia...
...They came out in favor of the right of self-determination of nations, economic cooperation, and universal U.N...
...neither does it belong to Chiang Kai-shek...
...Tragically, the United States does not come forward with imaginative and daring ideas to reverse that trend...
...It was still saddled with its policy of hostility toward China and a series of bilateral alliances which committed it firmly to maintain the now "indispensable" segments of the island defense chain...
...The talks had covered Matsu and Quemoy, "since these islands . . . have a relationship to the defense of Taiwan [Formosa] such that the President may judge their protection to be appropriate in assuring the defense of Formosa and the Pescadores...
...The quantities of steel available in the U.S.S.R...
...Nevertheless, the New York Times reported February 13 that "the United States has made clear to the British . . . that it will not consent to the surrender of the Quemoy or Matsu Island groups in the hope that this may persuade the Communists to stop fighting...
...And on December 2, 1954, the United States entered into an alliance with Formosa and thus assumed formally, and for an indefinite period, a posture of hostility toward one-fourth of the human race—the Chinese nation...
...Communist China was among the countries represented...
...A decade later, they are caught up in the process of rapid political, economic, and social evolution...
...and, as Maj...
...There is obviously no "good" solution for the Formosa problem that presents itself—only bad, or less bad...
...and he asserted in a press conference on August 31 of the same year that there would be no reason to maintain the U.S...
...Weapons and military equipment supplied to the Nationalist military forces are financed from U.S...
...defense appropriations...
...missed no opportunity to express sympathy with the principles and spirit of the Bandung Conference...
...The watchword is "economic cooperation...
...Czechoslovakia purchases Egyptian raw cotton as the United States dumps its cotton surplus on the world market, and Cairo sends a trade mission to Peking...
...Dulles met with Chiang when in Taipei March 3 for exchange of ratifications of the treaty of alliance, and in a formal statement issued at the end of his visit he said, "I have made it clear that the United States will not enter into any negotiations dealing with the territories or rights of the Republic of China [Formosa] except in cooperation with the Republic of China...
...In a press conference February 14, Chiang Kai-shek said that it had been made "perfectly clear" that the United States would defend Matsu and Quemoy as vital to the defense of Formosa itself...
Vol. 20 • May 1956 • No. 5
