A Policy Repudiated

President Eisenhower's decision to remove the Seventh Fleet as defense for the Communist China mainland marked a complete repudiation of one of the strangest policies in the history of the U.S.: the Truman-Acheson policy of suppressing the Chinese Nationalist government of Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek.

The Chinese Nationalists finished their withdrawal from the mainland across the 100-mile straits to Formosa in December 1949. (Four months earlier, Dean Acheson had tried to write off the Nationalists with the China white paper--an official attack on a friendly power without precedent in the history of international relations.) The island was important to the defense of the Pacific and doubly important as the base for what was still the best and largest anti-Communist army in Asia. But the State Department maintained a stiff anti-Formosa policy.

Beyond the Perimeter. This weird policy drew increasing criticism. The Joint Chiefs of Staff objected to it. General Douglas MacArthur objected. And so did Defense Secretary Louis Johnson. In January 1950, Johnson having gone off to sun himself in Florida, Dean Acheson fenced the military men back into their Pentagon dugouts, got Harry Truman to overrule a Joint Chiefs of Staff decision to strengthen Formosa. Said Truman: "The U.S. Government will not provide military aid or advice to the Chinese forces on Formosa." Acheson sealed the policy in his National Press Club speech of Jan. 12, 1950, which placed Formosa (along with Korea) beyond the "U.S. defensive perimeter."

There is a popular belief that the Truman Administration reversed its policies toward Chiang in June 1950, when the Korean war began. In one sense it did: by ordering the Seventh Fleet to patrol the Formosa straits, and by sending Chiang a new batch of U.S. military advisers, Harry Truman recognized that a Communist Formosa would be a military hazard at the rear of the U.N. forces in Korea.

But in a more basic sense, there was no policy change at all toward Communist China: the Seventh Fleet was ordered to stop the Nationalists from making air raids on the Communist mainland, and to abandon their efforts to blockade the mainland coast. When the Chinese Communists joined the attack in Korea in November 1950, this old order obviously lost whatever excuse it ever had--but it was never changed. The U.S. fought the troops of Communist China in desperate battles, and still guaranteed the coast of Communist China against attack.

This state of affairs, said Douglas MacArthur last week, was "one of the strangest anomalies known to military history . . . Actually it was this [U.S.] protection which permitted the transfer of the very Communist armies [from] central China for the attack on our forces in Korea."

"Give Us the Tools." What does the new Eisenhower order mean? It means that Chiang is at liberty to use his strength as he sees fit. Chiang has twelve ready divisions plus about 300,000 soldiers who can soon be brought to combat-readiness. He has an air force of some 300 planes (including transports). He has a navy of 50,000 men and 60 ships (the largest ship is a destroyer). The Nationalists claim contact with powerful groups of mainland guerrillas. Chiang has said that a Nationalist counteroffensive could be readied by 1954. "Give us the tools," he said last fall, "and we will finish the job of reconquering Red China."

This may be hopeful talk, far beyond Chiang's present capabilities. But the U.S., for its part, is committed to nothing. Obviously Eisenhower will not stand by and see the Communists launch an invasion against Formosa. The U.S. could make Chiang's raids more effective by providing the raiders with more arms, and with naval and air cover. No Administration official contemplates U.S. armies helping Chiang on the Chinese mainland, and Chiang has not asked for such help.

Whether Chiang moves or not, the simple reversal of the Truman-Acheson policy forces the Communists to beef up their coastal defenses. This, in turn, should work immediately to the benefit of U.N. forces in Korea, all other anti-Communist armies in Asia, and the defense of the free world itself.

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