End of a Journey

Across the Pacific Ocean, over the Rocky Mountains and into Denver, Colo, this week flew Secretary of State John Foster Dulles. At Denver's Lowry Air Force Base he emerged tousle-haired from a U.S. Air Force Constellation and hurried off in a rain squall to the President's summer office on the base. There Dulles reported first to the President and then to the National Security Council on his 16,000-mile diplomatic journey.

The Asia that he talked about behind the closed doors of the conference rooms was-from the U.S. viewpoint--a new Asia. For the first time since the beginning of Red China's aggression the U.S. had sorted out and categorized its Asian responsibilities.

Important Tie. In Manila Dulles and the representatives of seven other nations --Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Thailand and Pakistan--had hammered out and signed a Southeast Asia defense pact. In it the U.S. agreed that an armed attack--or an attempt at internal subversion--against any of the territory covered by the pact (see FOREIGN NEWS) would be considered a threat to the "peace and safety" of the eight signatories. In the event of such an attack, each of the eight nations would be obliged "to meet the common danger in accordance with its constitutional processes."

In spirit, the pact itself was an important new tie between the East and the West. Beyond that, its preamble and a separate "Pacific Charter" signed at the same time reasserted the eight nations' belief in the principles of "self-determination" and "self-government" for all nations. This thrust at colonialism unquestionably improved the U.S. and Western relationship with the Asian peoples.

Largely at the insistence of Britain, the pact did not include Chiang Kai-shek's Formosa. But this exclusion was, in effect, a good point for the U.S. it left the U.S. free to take its own independent action in connection with Formosa, which it has long recognized as its special responsibility. To make this point clear, Secretary Dulles flew from Manila to Formosa, rode up Grass Mountain to the residence of Chiang Kaishek. There Dulles assured the Nationalist Chinese President that his people did not stand alone. Said Dulles: "The United States is proud to stand by those who, having passed through so many trials, are yet courageously sustained by faith that will not be subdued . . . We shall not be intimidated."

Familiar Pattern. More immediate and more vexing than the problem of Formosa was the threat to Quemoy. In a little more than two weeks the Chinese Communists had lobbed 10,000 shells on Quemoy and neighboring Little Quemoy. The Reds were reportedly building up their forces along the mainland coast. From Quemoy's batteries, and from their own destroyers, the Nationalists retaliated with shellfire; from Formosa, with air-delivered bombs.

It was against the background of Quemoy that the National Security Council at Denver this week had to judge the new U.S. responsibilities in the Far East. The Chinese Communists' attack on Quemoy and their threats against Formosa followed an all too familiar pattern. This was not the peace that was supposed to follow the truce in Korea or the surrender of the West in Indo-China; it was a continuation of war in Asia. Unless the U.S. faced up to that reality, no amount of diplomatic achievement could be effective.

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