The Turn of the Screw

After almost a month of excited baying, the dogs of war subsided into a growl --still ominous but less noisy.

At midweek, from President Eisenhower's vacation residence in Newport, R.I., U.S. Secretary of State Dulles read off his -stern warning to Red China (see NATIONAL AFFAIRS). In Moscow the Soviet press blustered that, if the U.S. and Red China came to blows, Russia would help Peking "with everything at its disposal." Peking itself, in a move clearly designed to lend color to future charges of "aggression" by the U.S., proclaimed that henceforth the limit of its territorial waters would be not three but twelve miles. This would mean, if the Reds could make it stick, that all of Quemoy and Matsu would be in Red China's waters.

Already the Communists had established something close to a blockade of Quemoy. When the Chinese Nationalist navy early in the week tried to reinforce and supply the island, small, fast Communist craft drove the bulk of the convoy back to the Pescadores, and U.S. newsmen who succeeded in getting to Quemoy (see below) reported that no significant shipping had reached it since the Communists opened up their artillery assault three weeks ago. Five days later, in response to the Communist blockade, two U.S. heavy cruisers and six U.S. destroyers escorted a pair of Nationalist supply ships to Quemoy's three-mile limit in broad daylight. Said Nationalist Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek: "Now the problem of keeping the sea lanes open in the Formosa Strait is up to the Seventh Fleet."

Alarm & Excursion. As the screw tightened, governments around the world registered concern. Overnight, Philippine President Carlos Garcia created a National Security Council that expressed support for the U.S. position on Formosa; but the President added that the Philippine Republic itself would go to war only "if the U.S. bases in the Philippines are attacked." Canada's Prime Minister John Diefenbaker suggested that the U.N. take up the dispute--thereby playing into the hands of Peking, which has been fighting for years for acceptance into the U.N.

Japanese Foreign Minister Aiichiro Fujiyama announced that during his imminent visit to the U.S. he would try to win some degree of control over Far East operations of U.S. forces based in Japan. Snapped India's Nehru: "There is no doubt these islands will have to go to China, and this fact should be recognized and acted upon peacefully." The British government, moved by its fisheries "war" with Iceland (see below) to take a stern stand against Peking's new claim to a twelve-mile limit, publicly announced that it "fully shared" U.S. concern over events in the Formosa Strait. But in private, British Foreign Office spokesmen made no bones of their lack of enthusiasm at the prospect of active U.S. participation in defense of the offshore islands.

Time for Reflection. Even as U.S. allies fretted over the risks being run by Washington, Communist China abruptly changed tactics. After an emergency meeting of the Supreme State Council, Peking grandiloquently ordered a "general mobilization" of China's 600 million people "for the struggle against war provocations by the American imperialists." But simultaneously, Premier Chou En-lai announced that, "to settle the Sino-American dispute in the Taiwan area . . . the Chinese government is prepared to resume ambassador-level talks [with the U.S.]." Furthermore, added Chou, Peking had "voluntarily" decided to suspend bombardment of the offshore islands "to give Chiang Kai-shek's troops a chance for reflection.

In most capitals Chou's message and the U.S. response evoked sighs of relief. But one stern voice continued to remind the world that if Peking had indeed decided to loosen the screws for the time being, it would surely tighten them again one day. Asked what he thought Red intentions in the Formosa Strait really were, Chiang Kai-shek replied: "Their ultimate intention is to seize Taiwan."

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