Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1958-09-22
Far East Policy

At astime when the United
States has clearly defined
its position in the Far East.
The Star has shown by edi-
torial cartoon that it regards
the Matsus and Quemoy as
meaningless real estate. Ger
tainly any fair appraisal of
the present situation must
recognize that the hopes of
what free allies we have in
that area are pinned to the
stand President Eisenhower
took on the islands. A SELL
out of the Nationalist forces
could start a psychological
chain reaction in Wet Nam,
South Korea. the Philippines
and, of course, Free China
itself that could in time push
Western influence clear back
70 Australia.
We were sold a bill of
goods once about the Com
munists-that they were
peaceful agrarian reformers.
Chiang's crime in the eyes of
many was that he refused to
take United States advice and
take Reds into his cabinet.
Let's not kid ourselves. If
we knock the heart out of our
Asian allies, Red China won't
have to launch even one
landing boat. So let's stop
building up a straw-man of
alleged errors Of the Chang
government. There are plenty
of good and, constructive
things they've done, too. If
the tables were turned today
and the United States needed
allies, it is obvious who our
first friends would be: South
Korea and Nationalist China.
We don't appear to have
many real friends in the
world today. Let's keep those
we've got. c. ]. Barry.
Surely the world should
have learned long ago that
aggression, whether directed
by a Mussolini or a Mao Use
Tung, can not be turned
away with a soft answer.
Praises be to the fairly strong
stand taken by the President
and to the new policy which
apparently puts an end to the
stupidity that our forces
mustn't fight back if attacked
by the Communist aggreSsors!
Such policy, begun under
the Truman administration,
seems well nigh incredible.
I had thought America
1irsters, appeasers, and iso-
lationists were only a small
minority of the population.
But from the number of let
tiers appearing in certain
newspapers urging United
States capitulation to Red
China's aggression, it would
seem we are re-living the
years of the 1930s all over
again when so many of the
softheads told us it was in
evitable that the fascist wave
of the future take all of Eu-
rope. Let Hitler have Sudet-
enland, it belongs to Ger
many, they said. Let Mus
solini kill off the Philippians,
they're black, they said. The
Vichy government is in con-
troll of France. it's hopeless
to try to take it back, they
said. Now those with the
same type of mentality are
saving let the Reds take the
little islands, they don't
matter.
The wise course now would
be to reply to the Communist
bombardment with the only
reply that counts. If they
want war, better that it come
now than after the appeasers
have managed to convince the
the rest of the free world we
are yellow. Better that it
come in the far Pacific be-
fore it's too late.
War Veteran
4 4 4
Is the Dean Acheson who
criticized President Eisen-
hower's conduct of affairs in
the Far East, particularly in
regard to the threatened in
vasion of Quemoy by the
Chinese Reds. the same Mr..
Acheson who, when Secretary
of State under President
Truman, made a policy
speech stating that Korea
was outside the territorial in
terests of the United States,
or words to that effect? This
meant that what happened in
Korea was of little concern
to the United States.
The news Of this speech
was at once conveyed to the
North Korean Reds and they
began to attack South Korea.