A Few Truths

Chiang Kai-shek last week emerged from semi-retirement with a statement that contained a few important truths for Americans to ponder. Among them:

"If communism is not checked in China it will spread over the whole of Asia. Should that occur another world war would be inevitable.

"It is impossible for anyone to reach a settlement with the Communists.

"Any suggestion that the Chinese Communists might break with Moscow is insidious propaganda, designed to confuse.

"The U.S. [should] reactivate its policy of giving moral support to the Chinese government in its fight against communism."

Washington showed no sign of reactivating its China policy. In fact, the Truman Administration never had a determined policy aimed at stopping communism in China. Its loudest alibi has been that Chiang Kai-shek was a liability. This may be true today, partly as a result of ineffective U.S. policy and partly as a result of Chiang's own spectacular failure to keep the confidence of his people. If Washington ever gets a vigorous Asiatic policy it might be able to bypass Chiang. Meanwhile, defeated or not, discredited or not, Chiang at least made more sense than any statement on Asia that has come out of the U.S. State Department in recent months.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.