The Right Ideas

When tough, tiny (5 ft. 5 in., 110 lbs.) Chen Cheng, the Vice President and Premier of Nationalist China, flew into Washington's MATS terminal one day last week, the capital simmered in tropical 90DEG heat. But more than the weather had Chen warm under the collar. After years of concord, relations between the U.S. and her stanchest Pacific ally seemed to be falling into disturbing disarray.

Nationalist China began to wonder about John Kennedy and his advisers even before the election, when the future President implied that Quemoy and Matsu were not worth defending. Doubts rose higher after the inauguration, when the State Department leaked out hints of such possible diplomatic moves as a new "two China" policy and recognition of Outer Mongolia; U.N. Ambassador Adlai Stevenson seemed to surrender be fore the battle when months ago he spoke of Red China's admission to the U.N. as being inevitable. Recently, Formosa's dismay over U.S. diplomacy rose to such a degree that Ambassador Everett Drumright was summoned home for consultation. At his advice, the White House arranged for last week's state visit by Chen, 63, the official heir apparent to Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek.

Who's First? At last aware of the need to reassure a good friend, the Administration spared no effort to make sure that Chen went home with the right ideas about U.S. policy. Vice President Lyndon Johnson and his Lady Bird were on hand at the airport to greet Chen and his wife, escorted the Premier to the White House for an amiable chat with John Kennedy. Afterward, the President played host to Chen at a state luncheon. Kennedy was in high good humor--and full of probing questions that impressed his guest. Who was the leading military man in Red China? Kennedy wanted to know. "[Defense Minister] Lin Piao is now foremost," answered Old Soldier Chen. Was it possible, Kennedy asked, to split Moscow and Peking? Chen's answer: "On small matters, perhaps, but not on really big things."

Next morning, Chen, along with Foreign Minister Shen Chang-huan, was back at the White House for a more business like discussion of the key question that worried his government: What really is the U.S. attitude toward Red China's admission to the U.N.? Kennedy made it clear that the U.S. attitude had not softened, at one point told Chen: "Even if you wanted the Chicoms in the United Nations, we would still oppose it for our own reasons."

But Kennedy and Chen came to no agreement on specific strategy to keep Red China out of the U.N. The Nationalist government, Chen said, will fight to continue the moratorium on debating the subject. But most State Department experts think that the moratorium, as a gag on free discussion, has lost too much favor with a General Assembly now swollen to 99 members, with most of the new nations opposed to the idea. The DOS planners would prefer to conduct open arguments on the merit of Red China's admission--and seek to have the question classified as an "important" matter, requiring a two-thirds majority vote.

Old Memories. Kennedy and Chen also disagreed on policy toward Outer Mongolia. Some U.S. policymakers favor recognition of the puppet state, on the ground that an embassy in remote Ulan Bator would prove a valuable listening post for picking up intelligence of the Communist world. They also favor a deal to admit Outer Mongolia to the U.N. in exchange for a Soviet agreement to admit Mauritania, on Morocco's southern border. This. they argue, would win gratitude for the U.S. among the new African nations. Chen warned the President that Nationalist China might veto the admission of Outer Mongolia.

Obviously pleased by his Washington welcome. Chen later addressed the National Press Club, drove to the Pentagon for a conference with Defense Secretary Robert McNamara. Borrowing a presidential helicopter. Chen flew to Gettysburg for a short talk with Dwight Eisenhower, hurried back to lunch with Vice President Johnson and talk with Speaker Sam Rayburn on Capitol Hill, entertained Kennedy at an eight-course Mandarin dinner. Then he flew off to Manhattan, where he made a tour of Chinatown and met with U.N. Secretary Dag Hammarskjold. Heading home this week, after stops in Chicago and San Francisco, Chen would take with him a briefcase full of unresolved diplomatic problems. But thanks to John Kennedy's firm statement that the U.S. view of Red China has not changed, he would also take a clearer, more hopeful view of the new Administration and its policies.

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