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America’s Distorted Image of China

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Eisenhower and American Public Opinion on China

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Abstract

In his memoir, Present at Creation, Secretary of State, Dean G. Acheson, perfectly captured America’s fascination with China in the early twentieth century: “Hardly a town in our land was without its society to collect funds and clothing for Chinese missions, to worry about those who labored in distant, dangerous and exotic vineyards of the Lord, and to hear the missionaries’ inspiring reports.” The purpose of this chapter is two-fold. First, it presents a historiographical review of Sino-American relations prior to the 1952 Presidential election. To understand US public opinion toward China in the 1950s, it is necessary to look at how Americans developed an idealized image of China and how this, in turn, ill-prepared them for the shock of the communist takeover of the mainland in 1949 and the unexpected North Korean attack on South Korea in June 1950. Second, this chapter analyzes how those illusions affected the US domestic political debate and influenced the 1952 Presidential contest. No other aspect of American foreign affairs was more deeply involved in domestic politics than US-China relations.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Dean Acheson , Present at Creation: My Years in the State Department (New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1987), 8.

  2. 2.

    Michael Hunt, Ideology and US Foreign Policy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 69–71; Christopher Jespersen, American Images of China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), 41–47; Emily Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream (New York: Hill & Wang, 1982), 7–8.

  3. 3.

    Michael Hunt, “East Asia in Henry Luce’s “American Century”,” Diplomatic History 22 (1999): 321–328; Jespersen, American Images of China, 3–10; Rosenberg, Spreading the American Dream, 7–8; Michael Schaller, The United States and China (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 17.

  4. 4.

    Jonathan Spence, The Search for Modern China (New York: Norton, 1999); James Sheridan, China in Disintegration: The Republican Era in Chinese History, 1912–1949 (New York: Free Press, 1977).

  5. 5.

    Ross Koen, The China Lobby in American Politics (New York: Octagon Books, 1974), 28–39; Stanley Bachrack, The Committee of One Million, “ China Lobby” Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976), 36–39.

  6. 6.

    William Swanberg, Luce and His Empire (New York: Scribner, 1972), 257–261; Jespersen, American Images of China, 23; Henry Luce , “The American Century,” Life magazine, February, 17, 1941.

  7. 7.

    Patricia Niels, China Images in the Life and Times of Henry Luce (Savage: Rowan and Littlefield, 1990); 52–190; Jespersen, American Images of China, 43; Robert Herzstein, Henry R. Luce, Time and the American Crusade in Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 1–48.

  8. 8.

    Steven Casey, Selling the Korean War: Propaganda, Politics and Public Opinion, 1950–1953 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 14; Vance Trimble, The Scripps-Howard Handbook (Cincinnati: E.W. Scripps, 1981), 3–8, 171–215.

  9. 9.

    Koen, The China Lobby in American Politics, 50–78; Charles Keely, The China Lobby Man: The Story of Alfred Kohlberg (New York: Arlington House, 1969); Herzstein, Henry R. Luce , Time and the American Crusade in Asia, 44; Bachrack, The Committee of One Million, “China Lobby” Politics, 12.

  10. 10.

    John Gaddis, Strategies of Containment (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), 10–11.

  11. 11.

    Clayton Koppes and Gregory Black, Hollywood Goes to War: How Politics, Profits and Propaganda Shaped World War II Movies (New York: Free Press, 1987), 68; Jespersen, American Images of China, 77–78.

  12. 12.

    Koen, The China Lobby in American Politics, 46–78: China Telegram, January through June 1950, Records of the Office of Public Opinion Studies, State Department, 1943–1975, AI568P, box 26, National Archives II, College Park, Maryland. (Hereafter, CT followed by date, DOS, file reference, box number, and NAII).

  13. 13.

    Hansin Baldwin, “Too Much Wishful Thinking About China,” Reader’s Digest, September 1949, 13; John Fairbank, China Perceived (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1974) 3–18; CT, July through December 1947, DOS, AI568P, box 26, NAII.

  14. 14.

    Any Kaplan, “Left Alone with America,” in Cultures of United States Imperialism, ed. Amy Kaplan et al. (Durham: Duke University Press, 1993), 16.

  15. 15.

    Koen, The China Lobby in American Politics, 12; Michael Schaller, The United States and China in the Twentieth Century (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), 185–203.

  16. 16.

    The China White Paper was originally issued as United States Relations with China, with special reference to the period 1944–1949 (Washington, DC: State Department Publication 3573, Far Eastern Series 30, 1949), xvi; Hannah Gurman, “Learn to Write Well: The China Hands and the Communist-ification of Diplomatic Reporting,” Journal of Contemporary History 45 (2010): 430–453.

  17. 17.

    CT, June through December 1949, DOS, AI568P, box 26, NAII; “Special Report About US Popular Opinion on China”, December 1949, DOS, AI568Q, box 33, NAII.

  18. 18.

    Ibid.

  19. 19.

    CT, January through June 1950, DOS, AI568P, box 26, NAII: Herzstein, Henry R. Luce, Time and the American Crusade in Asia, 110.

  20. 20.

    CT, January through June 1950, DOS, AI568P, box 26, NAII.

  21. 21.

    Richard Rovere, Senator Joseph McCarthy (New York: Harper and Row, 1973), 32–75.

  22. 22.

    Ibid. Herzstein, Henry R. Luce, Time and the American Crusade in Asia, 125–139.

  23. 23.

    Ibid. Gurman, “Learn to Write Well: The China Hands and the Communist-ification of Diplomatic Reporting,” 450–453.

  24. 24.

    At the Cairo Conference, held from November 22 to 26, 1943, in Cairo, Egypt, President Franklin D. Roosevelt , British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Nationalist leader Jiang Jieshi agreed that at the end of the war, all the territories Japan had taken from the Chinese, such as Manchuria, Taiwan and the Penghus islands (Pescadores), should be restored to the Republic of China (ROC) and that in due course Korea should become free and independent. Harry S. Truman “United States Policy toward Formosa”, Department of State Bulletin, 22, January, 16, 1950, 79. (Hereafter DSB, followed by issue number, date and page). Dean, Acheson , “United States Policy Toward Formosa”, DSB, 22, January 16, 1950, 80; Monthly Survey 105, January 1950, DOS, AI568L, box 12, NAII; Kusnitz, Public Opinion and Foreign Policy, 31.

  25. 25.

    CT, January through June 1950, DOS, AI568P, box 26, NAII.

  26. 26.

    George F. Kennan, “The International Situation”, DSB, 21, December 5, 1949, 324; CT, January through June 1950, DOS, AI568P, box 26, NAII.

  27. 27.

    Ibid.

  28. 28.

    Gordon Chang, Friends and Enemies: The United States, China and the Soviet Union, 1948–1972 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1990), 42–80.

  29. 29.

    Ibid.; Shu Guang Zhang, Economic Cold War: America’s Embargo Against China and the Sino-Soviet Alliance, 1949–1963 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), 17–49.

  30. 30.

    CT, January through June, 1950, DOS, AI568P, box 26, NAII.

  31. 31.

    Chang, Friends and Enemies, 59–63; Zhang, Economic Cold War: America’s Embargo Against China and the Sino-Soviet Alliance, 1949–1963, 24–30.

  32. 32.

    Gallup, “Survey Finds 8 out of 10 Voters Approve of US Help to Korea”, The Washington Post, July 2, 1950; Gaddis, Strategies of Containment, A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy During the Cold War, 107–108; Casey, Selling the Korean War, Propaganda, Politics, and US Public Opinion, 1950–1953, 23–36.

  33. 33.

    Harry S. Truman , Memoirs: Years of Trial and Hope, vol. 2 (New York: Doubleday and Co., 1956), 334; CT, June through December 1950, DOS, AI568P, box 26, NAII; Special Report on American Opinion, “Public Attitudes Concerning Formosa”, September 26, 1950, DOS, AI568Q, box 33, NAII.

  34. 34.

    Gaddis, Strategies of Containment, A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy During the Cold War, 106–115.

  35. 35.

    Ibid.; In 1951, Truman reportedly approved an attack by 10,000 Nationalist troops, who had fled to northern Burma in 1949, into China. These troops received a large amount of covert aid channeled through the CIA . See Thomas Powers, The Man Who Kept the Secrets: Richard Helms and the CIA (New York: Pocket Books, 1981).

  36. 36.

    State Department’s Special Survey on Public Opinion Trends Toward Communist China, “Advocates of Strong US Support for Chinese Nationalist Government”, DOS, AI568Q, box 33, NAII; CT, June through December 1950, DOS, AI568P, box 26, NAII.

  37. 37.

    By an 81 to 5% margin the public believed that China had entered Korea “on orders from Russia”, see Gallup Poll on Red China and UN, December 28, 1950, DOS, AI568Q, box 33, NAII; CT, June through December, 1950, DOS, AI568P, box 26, NAII; Chang, Friends and Enemies, 80.

  38. 38.

    Robert Divine, Foreign Policy and US Presidential Elections, 1952–1960 (New York: New Viewpoints, 1974), 3–41; John Greene, The Crusade: The Presidential Election of 1952 (New York: University Press of America, 1985), 9–20.

  39. 39.

    Ibid.

  40. 40.

    “A Summary of US Attitudes on China Policy, 1949–1951”, December 1951, DOS, AI568Q, box 33, NAII.

  41. 41.

    Chang, Friends and Enemies, 80.

  42. 42.

    “A Summary of US Attitudes Towards Communist China”, June 1952, DOS, AI568Q, box 33, NAII.

  43. 43.

    Divine, Foreign Policy and US Presidential Elections, 1952–1960, 7–8.

  44. 44.

    Mara Oliva, “The Oratory of Dwight D. Eisenhower,” in Republican Orators from Eisenhower to Trump. Rhetoric, Politics and Society, ed. Andrew Crines et al. (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017), 11–39.

  45. 45.

    Greene, The Crusade: The Presidential Election of 1952, 50–53; Stephen Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier and President (New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 1990), 249–261; Richard Melanson, “The Foundation of Eisenhower’s Foreign Policy,” in Re-Evaluating Eisenhower: American Foreign Policy in the 1950s, ed. Melanson Richard et al. (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 35–59; Eisenhower Dwight D., The White House Years: Mandate for Change: 1953–1956 (Garden City, NY: Heinemann, 1963), 17–18.

  46. 46.

    Letter from Eisenhower to Swede Hazlett, November 14, 1952; Letter from Eisenhower to Eugene Pullman, February 4, 1952; Letter from Eisenhower to George Sloan, March 20, 1952; Dwight D. Eisenhower Papers, Private Correspondence Series, 1948–1952, box 10, Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, Abilene, Kansas (hereafter DDE Papers, followed by file reference, box number, DDEL); Martin J. Medhurst, “Text and Context in the 1952 Presidential Campaign: Eisenhower’s “I Shall Go to Korea” Speech,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 30 (2000):464–484.

  47. 47.

    Eisenhower’s press conference of June 5, 1952, the New York Times, June 6, 1952, p. 1; Medhurst, “Text and Context in the 1952 Presidential Campaign: Eisenhower’s “I Shall Go to Korea” Speech,” 464–484.

  48. 48.

    Ambrose, Eisenhower: Soldier and President, 269.

  49. 49.

    Richard Immerman, John Foster Dulles and the Diplomacy of Cold War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), ix; Dulles’ speech to the American Association for the United Nations, New York, December 29, 1950, DSB, 15, January 15, 1951, 88.

  50. 50.

    Transcript of Dulles’ interview for CBS, June 29, 1949, John Foster Dulles Papers, MC016, Duplicate Correspondence, 1949, box 40, Seely G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University, New Jersey (hereafter JFD papers, followed by record reference, box number, ML).

  51. 51.

    Dulles to Dean Rusk , January 12, 1950, and “Notes on Initial Reaction to the Korean Development”, November 30, 1950, JFD Papers, Duplicate Correspondence, 1950, box 47, ML.

  52. 52.

    Republican Party Foreign Policy Platform, John T. Woolley and Gerhard Peters, The American Presidency Project [online] Santa Barbara, CA: University of California (hosted), Gerhard Peters (database). Available from World Wide Web: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid+254837. Retrieved: June 1, 2011. (Hereafter The American Presidency Project followed by retrieved date).

  53. 53.

    Ambrose, Eisenhower, President and Soldier, 272–273.

  54. 54.

    For an analysis of the Democratic candidate see: Divine, Foreign Policy and US Presidential Elections, 3–41; Greene, The Crusade: The Presidential Elections of 1952, 49–70.

  55. 55.

    Divine, Foreign Policy and US Presidential Elections, 42–45; David Blake, Liking Ike: Eisenhower, Advertising, and the Rise of Celebrity Politics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017): 71–80.

  56. 56.

    Herzstein, Henry R. Luce, Time and the American Crusade in Asia, 156–165.

  57. 57.

    Daniel Douglass K. “They Liked Ike: Pro-Eisenhower Publishers and His Decision to Run for President,” Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly 77 (2000): 393–404.

  58. 58.

    Divine, Foreign Policy and US Presidential Elections, 46; Medhurst, “Text and Context in 1952 Presidential Campaign: Eisenhower’s “I shall go to Korea” Speech”, 867–893.

  59. 59.

    The New York Times, September 5, 1952, p. 12; David Anderson, “China Policy and Presidential Politics, 1952,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 10 (1980): 79–90.

  60. 60.

    Monthly and Bi-weekly Summaries of Public Opinion, September 1952, DOS, AI568P, box 28, NAII.

  61. 61.

    Eisenhower-Nixon Research Service Weekly Report, issue 25, September 17, 1952, Reid Family Papers, box 1, Library of Congress, Washington, DC (Hereafter LoC).

  62. 62.

    The New York Times, September 10, 1952, 19.

  63. 63.

    Adlai E. Stevenson, Major Campaign Speeches of Adlai E. Stevenson 1952 (New York: Deutsch, 1953), 92.

  64. 64.

    CT, June through December 1952, DOS, AI568P, box 28, NAII.

  65. 65.

    Divine, Foreign Policy and US Presidential Elections, 58–62; Greene, The Crusade: The Presidential Elections of 1952, 174–176.

  66. 66.

    The New York Times, September 23, 1952, 1–17.

  67. 67.

    CT, June through December 1952, DOS, AI568P, box 28, NAII.

  68. 68.

    The New York Times, September 27, 1952, 1; Stevenson, Speeches, 183.

  69. 69.

    CT, June through December 1952, DOS, AI568P, box 28, NAII.

  70. 70.

    Adams, Sherman, Papers 1952–1959, box 26, DDE; Divine, Foreign Policy and US Presidential Election2, 1952–1960, 69–71.

  71. 71.

    The New York Times, October 5, 1952, 80.

  72. 72.

    Adams, Sherman, Papers 1952–1959, box 37, DDEL.

  73. 73.

    CT, June through January 1952, DOS, AI568P, box 28, NAII.

  74. 74.

    Ambrose, Eisenhower, Soldier and President, 282–285; Divine, Foreign Policy and Presidential Elections, 58–62.

  75. 75.

    The New York Times, October 17, 1952, 1.

  76. 76.

    Medhurst, “Text and Context in 1952 Presidential Campaign: Eisenhower’s “I Shall Go to Korea” Speech”, 867–893; Oliva, “The Oratory of Dwight D. Eisenhower”, 11–39; Steven Casey, “Confirming the Cold War Consensus: Eisenhower and the 1952 Election,” in US Presidential Elections and Foreign Policy: Candidates, Campaigns, and Global Politics from FDR to Clinton, ed. Andrew Johnstone et al. (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 2017): 82–105.

  77. 77.

    Anderson, “China Policy and Presidential Politics, 1952”, 79–90; Ambrose, Eisenhower, Soldier and President, 284.

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    Mara Oliva

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Oliva, M. (2018). America’s Distorted Image of China. In: Eisenhower and American Public Opinion on China. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76195-4_2

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