Terms for Negotiation

Though his hard warnings got and deserved the headlines, the President made pleas for peaceful negotiation his first and last points. "Traditionally this country and its Government have always been passionately devoted to peace with honor," said he. Later, he spoke hopefully of the meetings in Warsaw, where U.S. Ambassador Jacob Beam was preparing for Quemoy negotiations with Red Chinese Ambassador Wang Ping-nan this week. If the bilateral talks fail, said Eisenhower, "there is still the hope that the United Nations could exert a peaceful influence."

Washington was obviously ready to negotiate, but it wanted the world to know what the terms would be.

"The U.S. would never be a party to any turnover of Quemoy and Matsu to the Chinese Communists," a top State Department official told a TIME correspondent last week. "But short of that, there are steps that would be taken to remove the 'thorn in the side of peace,' as the President mentioned--removing the provocations." Possible basis for discussion : neutralization of Quemoy and Matsu (see FOREIGN NEWS).

"The big problem," the policymaker continued, "is that there has been a letdown all over the world. It's a question whether the world has got back into the Munich mood, and the American people too. That's the big issue--whether the world is aroused enough to take a stand. That's what the Chinese and Soviets are taking advantage of. That's the big issue, not Quemoy and Matsu. In the last four years there has been a very marked growth in the quality of appeasement, the idea of not getting involved in other people's fights. It is almost true that the U.S. is the only nation in the world today that is not in that mood."

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