Foreign Relations of the United States, 1955–1957, China, Volume III

223. Memorandum of a Conversation, Taipei, December 17, 1956, 10 p.m.¹

Taipei, December 17, 1956, 10 p.m.

SUBJECT

• U.S. Leadership in Present World Situation

PARTICIPANTS

• President Chiang Kai-shek
• Assistant Secretary of State Walter S. Robertson
• Ambassador Walter C. Dowling²
• Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Howard Jones
• Vice President Ch’en Ch’eng
• Prime Minister O.K. Yui
• Acting Foreign Minister Ch’ang-huan Shen
• American Chargé d’Affaires James B. Pilcher
• Interpreter

After brief conversations with Ambassador Dowling and Mr. Jones, President Chiang directed his remarks towards Assistant Secretary of State Robertson.³

President Chiang stated that his remarks were being made as a friend and were not intended to be critical of China’s great and good friends, the United States Government and people, and that the remarks were only being made in an effort to be helpful.

President Chiang stated that Nehru⁴ is an opportunist and that the only thing he knows and understands well is strength. The President said that the United States should never fear that India would go Communist. He deplored the way in which the United States placated and coddled Nehru. He stated that that is the very way which would make him lean toward the Communists and that the United States should take a firmer and stronger hand in dealing with Nehru.

Mr. Robertson replied that Nehru was an individual who might lose power tonight and that the Indian people would remain and that the United States must exert every peaceful effort to prevent a large group of people from orienting themselves to Communism or becoming Communists.

Mr. Robertson cited another country—Burma—which had previously chosen to align itself with the neutralist bloc, but that now, in the face of recent events, Burma was beginning to orient itself toward the free world and that there was hope that India would, in due and good time, shift its position from one of neutralism to one of stronger ties with the free world.

The President said that the Chinese Communists should be dealt with in a firm manner, that the only thing the Communists know and understand is strength and that the United States Government is in a position to assume real and effective leadership from strength. He stated that the Geneva talks should be terminated forthwith. It was his opinion that, had a firm stand been taken in the beginning, the American prisoners would have been released, and, as it is, the talks have been dragging on for over a year and the release of the prisoners is still not in sight.

The President kept pointing up the leadership of the United States and stated that President Eisenhower is, since his re-election, at the peak of his prestige and power as a world leader, and that he has the highest regard for him and his leadership.

President Chiang stated that he heartily approved of the stand which President Eisenhower took in the recent Suez crisis. As regards Hungary President Chiang stated that the free world must not and cannot let the liberation movement in Hungary die. He stated that if this movement or effort to become free is crushed, it would be a terrific blow to the free world and to people under Communist domination who sought freedom and who are willing to fight and die for it.

The President stated that the United States must assume the leadership in some way to help the people of Hungary who are still fighting and dying for a cause of which the free world is proud but which the free world has not seen fit to give sufficient help.

Mr. Robertson inquired just what did President Chiang have in mind that the United States could do.

President Chiang smiled and stated that he had very definite and concrete ideas of what could and might be done but that President Eisenhower has not appointed him as his Chief of Staff.

Mr. Robertson stated that the United States was leaving no stone unturned in its endeavor to have all differences between nations settled by peaceful means through the United Nations and that the President wished to continue to use the United Nations in our efforts to settle disputes wherever they might arise.

President Chiang remarked that it was the United States prestige and leadership which made the United Nations, and that without the United States the United Nations would be an empty shell incapable of accomplishing anything.

President Chiang remarked that the United Nations passes endless resolutions and there is considerable exchange of views within the United Nations regarding the plight of oppressed people like the Hungarians, but that the United Nations had never taken the firm and positive stand and approach necessary to give effective assistance to Hungary.

Mr. Robertson said that we had the United Nations with us and that as long as it existed, which he hoped would be forever, we must use the United Nations to the fullest.

President Chiang interspersed his remarks from time to time with the comment that he was only talking as one friend to another friend and that the United States should assume a stronger role in world leadership which has become our responsibility.

At this point Madame Chiang came into the room and spoke to her husband which was a signal for the conversation to terminate.

Mr. Robertson stated that he wished to say just one more thing, and that was that we welcome constructive advice from our friends and that without their friendship and help and advice our task would be much harder, and that we looked forward to closer and stronger ties with our Chinese friends.

1. Source: Department of State, FE Economic Files: Lot 58 D 209, China (Taipei). Secret. Drafted by Pilcher on December 18, approved by Robertson in the Department on January 2, 1957. The conversation took place in the Shihlin residence of President Chiang.
2. U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Korea.
3. Robertson’s visit to Taipei on December 17 and 18 was part of a month-long tour of East Asian countries which took him to Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, the Republic of China, and Japan. Additional information on the Robertson trip is in Department of State, Central Files, 110.15–RO.
4. Indian Prime Minister Nehru was visiting the United States at the time. Nehru’s exchanges with Eisenhower and Dulles on the question of China are discussed in the editorial note, supra.