Evening star., 1951-06-04
Three Choices Left
Open to America

|Open to America
Now, in that situation the Unit
ed States Government had three
choices open to it.
One choice was to pull out OF
China and say, 1--WE have defeat
ed the Japanese. The Chinese
from now on must paddle their
own canoe, and we have to wash
our hands of it" That was an
impossible choice to take because
with the presence of 1926. .00C
armed japanese troops in China
exclusive of Manchuria, and OF
another 100000 japanese civil
| ians - government officials. eco
nomic people, clerks. and business
men, one thing or another-there
was a Japanese force and a Japa-
Inese influence so great in China
that by throwing its weight to
either side in this civil war il
could have taken over the admin
istration of the country, and ia
lpan in defeat would have found
Itself in actual control of China
a result which we could not, OF
course, help to bring about.
The second choice was that
the United States Government
might have put into China un-
limited resources and all the
necessary military power to try
and defeat the Communists. re-
move the Japanese, and remove
the Russians from Manchuria.
That was a task so great ano
so repugnant to the American
people that the Government could
not undertake it, and it was one
which was not in accord with
American interests.
The third choice, and the one
which was chosen, was to give
important assistance of all sorts
to the Chinese government anc
to assist in every way in the
preservation of peace in China
and the working out of the agree.
mentS which were so necessary tt
enable the Chinese government te
re-establish itself in those part.
of China where it had been be.
fore and to get, for the first time
into areas of China where it nevel
had been.
i Relations Have Long History.
i The relations between the Ma.
tionalist government and thu
Communists have had long his
tory in China. Prior to 1922
there was period of collabora
tion. From 1927 to 1887 ther,
was a period of war. From 1893
onward there was again a periot
in which the official attitude O.
both the government and tn,
Communists was that the differ
IenceS between them were politica
in nature, had to be settled b,
political means; and beginning il
1887 they worked out arrange
ments for collaboration in fightin,
the Japanese. which never wer,
very effective, but were agree.
mentS between them.
Later on, as you will see, they
began working very vigorously a
arrangements to bring about
settlement by negotiation Ii
China. This official view wa,
stated by the generalissimo OF
September Is. 1943, where he said
and this is one of many time,
when he said this from 1887 on
Il am of the opinion that first O
all we should clearly recogniz,
!, that the Chinese Communist prob
lem is a purely political problem
and should be solved by politica
/, means"
] AS I said, there was an agree
!, ment reached between them i,
J, 1897 for their joint efforts agains
, the Japanese. That agreemen
/ olo not work. and reports wer,
made over and over again that
, very large part Of the Nationals
armed forces were immobilized S,
Tar as the war against Japan wa
l concerned because they stood fac
ing one another and maneuverin,
against one another.
II was the effort of our Gov
ernment throughout the wa
J, period to try and reach some kin,
i OF an arrangement so that thes
, two forces instead of watchin,
one another would both fight tn
japanese. If they did that ther
: was a very important contribu
!, ton to the war.
In the spring of 1914 Vice Pres
t ident Wallace went on a missio,
Tor President Roosevelt. Anon
other places he went to Chins
and there he had talks with tn
generalissimo, and they talke
: ABOUT two of the great importan
: problems that I have been dis
cusslng. One was Manchuria an
F.. ene other was the Communists
5 Chang Wanted U. S. Help.
, The generalissimo was mos
anxious to get help of the Unite
States in improving relations, a
ne stated it. between the Unite
| States and the Soviet Union be
cause without that improvement