Abstract
In September 1958, the British Ambassador to the US, Sir Harold Caccia, reported to the Foreign Office in London that the American public was getting increasingly frustrated with the difficult state of Sino-American relations. “Dissatisfaction is nothing new, but it is being expressed more openly now,” he wrote. The American public particularly blamed Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kei-shek) and his associates in Washington for the dangerous situation in the Taiwan Straits. A large portion of the public was now willing to abandon Eisenhower’s hard line policy and implement a softer approach if it could avoid another military crisis or worse, nuclear war.
The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the public discontent that plagued the last years of the Eisenhower administration. The calls for a reassessment of Sino-American relations, which had begun at the end of the first Taiwan (Formosa) crisis, intensified through 1958 and reached a peak when the Chinese Communists began shelling the offshore islands for a second time in the autumn of that year. While support for establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing (Peiping) and its admission into the United Nations never reached an overall national majority, removal of the trade embargo and negotiations to minimize tensions and lower the risk of a nuclear conflict were advocated tor by an overwhelming majority of Congressmen, press, and the public. Only a few diehard Nationalist supporters continued to argue that hostility was the only correct policy toward the Communist regime. However, President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles refused to acquiesce to popular demand. They remained convinced that their hard line policy was the best way to protect American national security interests.
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Notes
- 1.
De la Mare to Dalton, September 26, 1958, FO 371/133535, National Archives, Kew, London.
- 2.
“Public Opinion on US Foreign Policy”, January 1958, Records of the Office of Public Opinion Studies, Department of State, 1943–1975, AI568J, box 1, National Archives II, College Park, Maryland (hereafter survey title followed by date, DOS, file reference, box number, NAII).
- 3.
On February 27, 1958, a trade agreement had been signed between the China Committee for the Promotion of International Trade and several Japanese business groups; Publications relating to the Committee of One Million Against Admission of Red China to the United Nations , 1954–1966, Tamiment Library, New York University, New York (hereafter NYU); Stanley Bachrack, The Committee of One Million, “China Lobby” Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1976), 143.
- 4.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, The White House Years: Waging Peace (London: William Heinemann LTD, 1965), 467–477.
- 5.
China Telegram (hereafter CT), February 4 through April 29, 1958, DOS, AI568P, box 30, NAII.
- 6.
In relations to the Great Decisions Program, the Foreign Policy Association (FPA) produces a National Opinion Ballot Report each year based on the tabulation of opinion ballots submitted by the participants in the Great Decisions Program. Since 1955, opinion ballots have been included in the Great Decisions Briefing Book and have been sent to the White House, the State Department , the Department of Defense, members of Congress , educational institutions, media, and concerned citizens. A full copy of the 1958 Briefing Book is currently unavailable. The FPA is unable to provide one because of repository laws. One copy is stored at the British Library in London; however, at the time this research thesis was being completed the British Library was relocating some of its collections and therefore could not provide the document. The data mentioned in this chapter are from extracts of the 1958 Briefing Book that had been included in the State Department daily, weekly, and monthly reports on US public opinion or are among Press Secretary James C. Hagerty Papers (hereafter Hagerty Papers) at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas (hereafter DDEL).
- 7.
CT, March 25 through May 27, 1958, DOS, AI568P, box 30, NAII; Hagerty Papers, box 45, DDEL.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
Ibid.
- 10.
CT, May 3 through May 16, 1958, DOS, AI568P, box 30, NAII; Monthly Review of Public Opinion, June 1958, DOS, AI568K, box 13, NAII.
- 11.
Ibid.; Schumach, Murray, “Zoo Bound Panda from Red China Is a Trade Risk,” The New York Times, May 7, 1958, 1.
- 12.
K.G. Ritchie, British Embassy in Beijing to Foreign Office, January 31, 1958, Foreign Office Records, FO371/13341 (1958), National Archives, Kew; Shu Guang, Zhang, Economic Cold War, America’s Embargo Against China and the Sino-Soviet Alliance, 1949–1963 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001), 174–198.
- 13.
Minutes of the 356 NSC meeting, February 27, 1958, FRUS, IV, 1958–1960, 703–706; Briefing notes, drafted by Robert Cutler and Robert H. Johnson, February 27, 1958, FRUS, IV, 1958–1960, 710–712; Minutes of the 364 NSC meeting, May 2, 1958, FRUS, IV, 1958–1960, 713; Philip, Funigiello, American-Soviet Trade in the Cold War (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988), 11–17.
- 14.
Letter to Eric A. Johnston on the Need for Public Information as to the Foreign Aspects of National Security, January 11, 1958, Eisenhower, Dwight D. The Presidential Papers of Dwight D. Eisenhower, ed. Galambos Louis and D. van Ee (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1996), 16–17 (hereafter EPP followed by page number).
- 15.
“Notes on one-day conference on public opinion” February 25, 1958, Hagerty Papers, box 10, DDEL.
- 16.
“Improving Public Opinion Management,” Memorandum to Federal Agencies, May 1958, Hagerty Papers, box 10, DDEL; “Public Opinion and Foreign Policy,” Memorandum to State and Defense Department, May 1958, Hagerty Papers, box 10, DDEL.
- 17.
A.J. Goodpastor, Memorandum of Conference with the President, August 25, 1958, Dwight D. Eisenhower Papers (hereafter DDE Papers), Ann Whitman File, International Series, box 10, DDEL; Discussion at the 375 meeting of the National Security Council, August 7, 1958, DDE Papers, NSC Series, box 10, DDEL.
- 18.
Memorandum of Conference with the President, August 11, 1958, JFD Papers, Chronological Series, box 16, DDEL.
- 19.
Ibid.; Memorandum of Conference with the President, August 12, 1958, JFD Papers, Chronological Series, box 16, DDEL.
- 20.
Eisenhower, Waging Peace, 256.
- 21.
Memorandum of Conference with the President, August 23, 1958, JFD Papers, White House Memoranda Series, box 7, DDEL.
- 22.
Memorandum of Conference, August 25, 1958, DDE Papers, Ann Whitman File, International Series, box 10, DDEL; Special Watch Report of the Intelligence Advisory Committee, August 29, 1958, DDE Papers, Ann Whitman File, International Series, box 10, DDEL.
- 23.
Ibid.; Eisenhower, Waging Peace, 297.
- 24.
Memorandum of Conference with the President, August 29, 1958, DDE Papers, Diary Series, box 35, DDEL.
- 25.
Review of World Opinion on the Formosan Straits Situation, August/September 1958, DOS, AI568J, box 1, NAII; “Special Opinion Review on Formosa Straits Situation” August 1958, DOS, AI568J, box 1, NAII; CT, August 26 through September 3, 1958, DOS, AI568P, box 30, NAII.
- 26.
Ibid.
- 27.
Ibid.
- 28.
Ibid.
- 29.
“Taiwan Straits: Issues Developed in Discussions with the JCS,” September 2, 1958, DDE Papers, International Series, box 10, DDEL.
- 30.
Ibid.
- 31.
Ibid.
- 32.
Memorandum of Conversation with the President, September 4, 1958, JFD papers, White House Memo Series, box 7, DDEL.
- 33.
“Authorised Statement by the Secretary of State following his review with the President on the situation in the Formosa Straits area,” September 4, 1958, JFD papers, White House Memoranda Series, box 7, DDEL. Transcript of News Conference, September 4, 1958, JFD papers, White House Memoranda Series, box 7, DDEL.
- 34.
Telephone call to the President in Newport, September 8, 1958, JFD papers, Telephone Calles Series, box 13, DDEL.
- 35.
Letters and Telegrams regarding the Formosa and the Offshore Islands as of September 9, 1958, DDE Papers, International Series, box 10, DDEL; quoted in George Eliades C. “Once More Unto the Breach: Eisenhower, Dulles , and Public Opinion During the Offshore Islands Crisis of 1958,” Journal of American-East Asian Relations 4 (1993): 68–87.
- 36.
“Press Reaction to Secretary Dulles 4 September speech,” DOS, AI568J, box 1, NAII; Green to Eisenhower, September 29, 1958, JFD Papers, White House Memorandum Series, box 7, DDEL.
- 37.
Enclosure to Washburn to Eisenhower, September 9, 1958; World Radio and Press Reaction to President Eisenhower’s speech of September 11, Daily Report, Supplement World Series, September 16, 1958, DDE Papers, International Series, box 10, DDEL.
- 38.
Eliades, “Once More Unto the Breach: Eisenhower, Dulles , and Public Opinion During the Offshore Islands Crisis of 1958,” 68–87; Appu K., Soman, “Who’s Daddy in the Taiwan Straits? The Offshore Islands Crisis of 1958,” The Journal of American East-Asian Relations 3 (1994): 373–398.
- 39.
JCS memorandum to Secretary of Defense, DDE Papers, International Series, box 19, DDEL; Memorandum of Conversation with the President, September 11, 1958, JFD papers, White House Memoranda Series, box 7, DDEL.
- 40.
Gordon, Gray, Memorandum of Record, September 12, 1958, DDE Papers, Special Assistant Series, box 3, DDEL.
- 41.
“Radio and Television Report to the American People Regarding the Situation on the Formosa Straits,” September 11, 1958, EPP, 696.
- 42.
Ibid.
- 43.
Ibid.
- 44.
CT September 23 through 30, 1958, DOS, AI568P, box 30, NAII.
- 45.
“Special public review in reaction to Secretary Dulles’s 27 September speech,” September 28, 1958, DOS, AI568J, box 1, NAII.
- 46.
Ibid.
- 47.
Ibid.
- 48.
“US Public Against Intervention in New Formosa Crisis,” The New York Times, September 28, 1958, 1.
- 49.
Memorandum to President, September 28, 1958, DDE Papers, JCS Series, box 850, DDEL; Memorandum on the Situation in the Formosa Straits, October 9, 1958, DDE Papers, NSC Series, box 815, DDEL.
- 50.
“Special Review of Public Opinion,” October 1958, DOS, AI568J, box 1, NAII.
- 51.
Eisenhower to Dulles , October 7, 1958, DDE Papers, Ann Whitmann Series, box 13, DDEL; JFD press conference, October 8, 1958, JFD Papers, press conferences 1958, box 17, Seely, G. Mudd Library, University of Princeton, New Jersey (hereafter JFD papers followed by box number and ML).
- 52.
Memorandum of Meeting Between Secretary Dulles and Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, October 21, 1958, JFD papers, box 67, ML.
- 53.
CT, October through November 1958, DOS, AI568P, box 30, NAII.
- 54.
Leonard Kusnitz, Public Opinion and Foreign Policy: America’s China Policy, 1949–1979 (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1984). 81.
- 55.
“Freshman Engle on China Policy,” the New York Times, February 6, 1959, 1.
- 56.
Roberts, Chalmers, “An Interview with Senator William Fulbright,” the Washington Post, December 6, 1958, 7.
- 57.
CT, January 2 through 23, 1959, DOS, AI568P, box 30, NAII.
- 58.
Ibid.
- 59.
CT, January 24 through February 23, 1959, DOS, AI568P, box 30, NAII.
- 60.
The Conlon Report , October 31, 1959, Hagerty Papers, box 67, DDEL.
- 61.
Ibid.
- 62.
“The Mid-Century Challenge to US Foreign Policy,” Rockefeller Brothers Fund Report, November 1959, Hagerty papers, box 67, DDEL.
- 63.
“Public Reaction to the Conlon Report and Rockefeller Brothers Fund Report,” December 1959, DOS, AI568J, box 1, NAII.
- 64.
Ibid.
- 65.
Ibid.
- 66.
Ibid.
- 67.
Ibid.; Bachrack, The Committee of One Million, 143–151.
- 68.
Publications relating to the Committee of One Million Against Admission of Red China to the United Nations, 1954–1966, Tamiment Library, NYU.
- 69.
Ibid.; Bachrack, Stanley, The Committee of One Million, “China Lobby” Politics, 148.
- 70.
“Public Reaction to COOM’s propaganda campaign,” May/June 1959, DOS, AI568J, box 1, NAII.
- 71.
Memorandum by Assistant Secretary of State for Policy Planning (Smith), October 1958, FRUS, IV, 1958–1960, 462–463.
- 72.
Memorandum from the regional Planning Adviser of Far Eastern Affairs (Green) to the Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Robertson) , February 18, 1959, FRUS, IV, 1958–1960, 532–533.
- 73.
Dulles to Smith , December 15, 1958, JFD Papers, box 87, ML; 404 National Security Meeting, April 30, 1959, FRUS, IV, 1958–1960, 762.
- 74.
“State Department to Authorise 33 Newspapermen to Travel to Red China,” The New York Times, May 7, 1959, 1.
- 75.
Dulles to Eisenhower, January 13, 1958, FRUS, IV, 1958–1960, 593–595.
- 76.
Dulles, Allen , “An Intelligence Review of the Communist Bloc,” October 28, 1958, Allen Dulles Papers, box 229, DDEL.
- 77.
Robert Divine, Foreign Policy and US Presidential Elections, 1952–1960 (New York: New Viewpoints, 1974), 183–188; Gordon Chang, Friends and Enemies, The United States, China and the Soviet Union, 1948–1972 (Stanford: Stanford University press, 1982), 203–208.
- 78.
Herter to Eisenhower, June 17, 1959, DDE Papers, Herter Series, box 27, DDEL.
- 79.
DSB, June 1959–December 1960.
- 80.
Gordon, Chang, Friends and Enemies, 205–207; “End of the Year Review of Public Opinion on Foreign Policy,” December 1960, DOS, AI569J, box 1, NAII.
References
Bachrack, Stanley. The Committee of One Million, “China Lobby” Politics. New York: Columbia University Press, 1976.
Chang, Gordon. Friends and Enemies, The United States, China and the Soviet Union, 1948–1972. Stanford: Stanford University press, 1982.
Divine, Robert. Foreign Policy and US Presidential Elections, 1952–1960. New York: New Viewpoints, 1974.
Eisenhower, Dwight D. The White House Years: Waging Peace. London: William Heinemann LTD, 1965.
Eliades, George C. “Once More Unto the Breach: Eisenhower, Dulles, and Public Opinion During the Offshore Islands Crisis of 1958.” Journal of American-East Asian Relations 4 (1993): 68–87.
Funigiello, Philip. American-Soviet Trade in the Cold War. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1988.
Kusnitz, Leonard. Public Opinion and Foreign Policy: America’s China Policy, 1949–1979. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1984.
Soman, Appu K. “Who’s Daddy in the Taiwan Straits? The Offshore Islands Crisis of 1958.” The Journal of American East-Asian Relations 3 (1994): 373–398.
Zhang, Shu Guang. Economic Cold War, America’s Embargo Against China and the Sino-Soviet Alliance, 1949–1963. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.
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Oliva, M. (2018). Hard Line Until the End. In: Eisenhower and American Public Opinion on China. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-76195-4_7
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