Accidental State

by Hsiao-ting Lin

  70. State Department, memorandum entitled “Hypothetical Development of the Formosan Situation,” top secret, May 3, 1950, no. 793.00/5–350, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 1. See also Thomas J. Schoenbaum, Waging Peace and War: Dean Rusk in the Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson Years (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988), 209; Leonard A. Kusnitz, Public Opinion and Foreign Policy: America’s China Policy, 1949–1979 (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1984), 33.

  71. State Department, memorandum on Formosa, top secret, May 31, 1950, no. 794A.00/5–3150, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 1.

  72. Rusk to Acheson, top secret memorandum, June 9, 1950, no. 794A.00/6–950, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 1.

  73. State Department, top secret memorandum, June 15, 1950, in ROCA, reel 15.

  74. Ibid.

  75. See The New York Times, editorial, April 27, 1950, in Julius Epstein Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Box 22.

  76. Ronald McGlothlen, Controlling the Waves: Dean Acheson and the U.S. Foreign Policy in Asia (New York: W. W. Norton, 1993), 120–122. In the spring of 1950, a rumor that Hu Shi was supported by the United States and would lead Free China was widely circulated among the so-called Third Force elements in Hong Kong. See unpublished autobiographical writings of Thomas Tse-yu Yang, chapter 17, Thomas Tse-yu Yang Papers, Hoover Institution Archives, Stanford University, Folder 1.

  77. “Memorandum for Colonel Bayer: Paragraphs of Colonel Fortier’s report mentioned in General Bradley’s message,” June 26, 1950, NARA, RG 218, Geographical File 1948–50, Entry: UD 7, 190:1/27/01.

  78. CKSD, diary entry for June 5, 1950, Box 48.

  79. Accinelli, Crisis and Commitment, 26; Cumings, The Origins of the Korean War, 2:540–543; Michael D. Pearlman, Truman and MacArthur: Policy, Politics, and the Hunger for Honor and Renown (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008), 52–53.

  80. Cooke to Judd, June 16, 1950, Walter H. Judd Papers, Box 96; CKSD, diary entries for June 13 and 20, 1950, Box 48.

  81. William J. Sebald and Russell Brinan, With MacArthur in Japan: A Personal History of the Occupation (New York: W. W. Norton, 1965), 122.

  82. Douglas MacArthur, “Memorandum on Formosa,” June 14, 1950, NARA, RG 218, Geographical File, 1948–50, Entry: UD 7, 190:1.

  83. Sebald to State Department, June 22, 1950, no. 794A.00/6–2250, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 2.

  84. For more about the “white terror” of Taiwan from the 1950s to the 1970s, see Lan Bozhou, Baise Kongbu [The white terror] (Taipei, Taiwan: Yangzhi chubanshe, 1993) and Kang-yi Sun, Journey through the White Terror: A Daughter’s Memoir (Taipei: National Taiwan University Press, 2006).

  85. H. L. Grosskopf (special technical advisor) to Vice Admiral Gui Yongqing, memorandum, July 31, 1950, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26.

  86. Strong to State Department, August 5, 1950, no. 794A.00(W)/8–550, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 2. For more about MacArthur’s trip to Taiwan, see Chapter 8.

  87. Karl L. Rankin, China Assignment (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1964), 105–106.

  88. State Department, “Military Advisory Personnel for Formosa,” office memorandum, January 20, 1951, no. 794A.5-MAP/1–2051; State Department, office memorandum, February 5, 1951, no. 794A.5-MAP/2–551; State Department, office memorandum, February 13, 1951, no. 794A.5-MAP/2–1351, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 4.

  89. State Department, “Military Chain of Command on Formosa,” top secret office memorandum, March 13, 1951, no. 794A.5-MAP/3–1351, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 4.

  90. State Department, “Military Advisory Personnel for Formosa,” office memorandum, January 20, 1951, no. 794A.5-MAP/1–2051, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 4. H. Maclear Bate, Report from Formosa (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1952), 162–164.

  91. NARA, RG 218, Geographical File 1951–53, Entry: UD 13, 190: 1, “Memorandum by the Chief of Staff on Establishment of a JUSMAG on Formosa,” March 7, 1951; Cooke to Commander Chester F. Pinkerton, (member of the MAAG), memorandum, May 14, 1951, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 29; Cooke to Chiang Kai-shek, memorandum, June 8, 1951, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 27.

  92. Strong to State Department, July 8, 1950, no. 794A.00(W)/7–850, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 2; Strong to State Department, August 4, 1950, no. 794A.56/8–450, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 4; Chen Cheng to Chiang Kai-shek, confidential report, July 17, 1950, TD/MJY, vol. 47, no. 59077.

  93. CKSD, diary entries for June 29 and 30, and July 1, 2, and 3, 1950, Box 48; Chiang Ching-kuo to Chiang Kai-shek, August 17, 1950, TD / DMW, vol. 8, no. 59312.

  94. Strong to State Department, July 25, 1950, no. 794A.5/7–2550, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 4; CKSD, diary entries for July 7, 8, 9, 10, and 13, 1950, Box 48.

  95. Strong to State Department, August 5, 1950, no. 794A.00(W)/8–550, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 2; CKSD, diary entries for July 9 and 13, 1950, Box 48.

  96. General R. L. Peterson to Cooke, memorandum, October 10, 1950, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26; Captain A. B. Ewing to Cooke, memorandum, October 18, 1950, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26; Ewing to General Sun Liren, memorandum, November 17, 1950, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26.

  97. Cooke to Chiang Kai-shek, “Organization of the Chinese Army,” memorandum, November 4, 1950, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 27; Cooke to Chiang, “Comments on Organization of the Chinese Army,” memorandum, December 4, 1950, TD / DMW, vol. 9, no. 58893.

  98. Cooke to Gui Yongqing, “Chinese Naval Establishment,” memorandum, August 31, 1950, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 6; Walter Ansel to Admiral Ma Jizhuang, memorandum, September 19, 1950, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 27.

  99. See Cooke to Captain John Holbrook (U.S. Navy, Treasure Island, CA), July 5, 1950, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26; W. B. Davidson (U.S. Navy commanding officer, Subic Bay) to H. L. Grosskopf, August 4, 1950, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26; Cooke to Rear Admiral Bertram Rodgers (commandant, 12th Naval District, San Francisco), March 7, 1951, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26; Cooke to Captain W. R. Cooke (U.S. Naval Receiving Station, New York), April 19, 1951, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26.

  100. Cooke to James Gray, memorandum, September 14, 1950, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26.

  101. Cooke to General Zhou Zhirou, July 6, 1950, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 27.

  102. Robert Stairs (radar field engineer of CIC) to General Zhou Zhirou, August 1, 1950, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 27.

  103. S. G. Fassoulis to James Gray, October 22, 1950, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26; Koo, Gu Weijun Huiyilu, 8:436–439.

  104. State Department, “Radar and P-51’s for Formosa,” memorandum, November 17, 1950, no. 794A.561/11–1750, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 4.

  105. Fassoulis to Gray, November 28, 1950, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26.

  106. Fassoulis to Gray, January 23 and 26, 1951, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26; Cooke, memorandum, 1951 (n.d.), Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26.

  107. C. W. Jack (former chief accountant of CIC) to F. T. Murphy (Division of Economic Property Policy, State Department), February 15, 1951, no. 794A.561/2–1551, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 4; Fassoulis to Gray, January 23, 1951, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26.

  108. Cooke to Chiang Kai-shek, memorandum, January 23, 1951, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26; Koo, Gu Weijun Huiyilu, 8:443–448.

  109. Judd to Chiang Kai-shek, March 20, 1951, Walter Judd H. Papers, Box 83; CKSD, diary entries for March 9, 10 and 11, 1951, Box 48.

  110. See, for example, Time Magazine, editorial, September 3, 1951, 11–12.

  111. Rear Admiral B. B. Biggs to Major General James H. Burns, Office of the Secretary of Defense, memorandum, June 19, 1951, NARA, RG 330, Records of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (330.6), Box 50; “Announcement by Chinese Embassy,” 1951 (n.d.), Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26.

  112. Cooke to Chiang Kai-shek, memorandum, June 8, 1951, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26; Gray to Yin Zhongrong, September 1, 1951, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 26; Cooke to Chiang, September 30, 1951, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 27.

  CHAPTER 8 ▪ The Island
Redoubt Reinvigorated

  1. Richard C. Thornton, Odd Man Out: Truman, Stalin, Mao, and the Origins of Korean War (Dulles, VA: Brassey’s, 2000), 9–23. For more about Dean Acheson’s decision to forgo relations with the PRC, see Thomas J. Christenson, Useful Adversaries: Grand Strategy, Domestic Mobilization, and Sino-American Conflict, 1947–1958 (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 77–138.

  2. Acheson, Present at the Creation, 373–376; John Lewis Gaddis, We Now Know: Rethinking Cold War History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 75–77.

  3. Nicholas Thompson, The Hawk and the Dove: Paul Nitze, George Kennan, and the History of the Cold War (New York: Henry Holt, 2009), 112–114.

  4. Chen Jian, Mao’s China and the Cold War (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001), 50–53.

  5. Garver, The Sino-American Alliance, 23–25.

  6. See, for example, “Reminiscences of Admiral Sidney Souers” (former CIA director), dated December 15, 1954, in Documentary History of the Truman Presidency, vol. 23: The Central Intelligence Agency: Its Founding and the Dispute over its Mission, 1945–1954, ed. Dennis Merrill (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1998), 406–408.

  7. See Thornton, Odd Man Out, 119–145, for a detailed discussion on Truman and the problem of Taiwan in the early months of 1950.

  8. President’s statement, June 27, 1950, FRUS, 1950, vol. 7, Korea, 202–203.

  9. Acheson to MacArthur, top secret, July 24, 1950, no. 794A.5/7–2450, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 4.

  10. CKSD, diary entry for June 28, 1950, Box 48.

  11. CKSD, diary entry for September 12, 1950, Box 48.

  12. See Shao Yulin to Chiang Kai-shek, top secret memorandum on the U.S.-Soviet-Korea situation and the Nationalist government strategy, March 7, 1950, TD / DHW, vol. 68, no. 54973; Shao to Chiang, March 17, 1950, TD / DHW, vol. 68, no. 54976.

  13. See, for example, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of National Defense to Chiang Kai-shek, joint report, February 15, 1950, TD / ZQJ, vol. 2, no. 54298; Nationalist Military Strategic Advisory Council, proposal, May 26, 1950, TD / ZJBJ, vol. 49, no. 56808.

  14. See Charles Cooke, draft of letter from Chiang Kai-shek to General MacArthur, November 13, 1950, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 29; Cooke to Chiang, memorandum, February 17, 1953, Charles M. Cooke Papers, Box 2.

  15. See George M. Elsey (assistant to President Truman), memorandum, June 30, 1950, in Documentary History of the Truman Presidency, vol. 18, The Korean War: The United States’ Response to North Korea’s Invasion of South Korea, June 25, 1950-November 1950, ed. Dennis Merrill (Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1997), p. 139; Department of the Army to SCAP, Tokyo, top secret, June 30, 1950, in Documentary History of the Truman Presidency, ed. Merrill, 18: 169. See also Acheson, Present at the Creation, 412–413.

  16. Accinelli, Crisis and Commitment, 39.

  17. Strong to State Department, July 21, 1950, no. 794A.00/7–2150, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 1. A careful and excellent analysis of MacArthur and Chiang Kai-shek’s intelligence partnership during this period can be found in Cheng David Chang, “To Return Home or ‘Return to Taiwan’: Conflicts and Survival in the ‘Voluntary Repatriation’ of Chinese POWs in the Korean War,” (PhD dissertation, University of California at San Diego, 2011), 30–184.

  18. Manchester, American Caesar, 563–567; Lowe, The Origins of the Korean War, 206–207.

  19. Acheson, Present at Creation, 422.

  20. Fox Report: Survey of Military Assistance Required by the Chinese Nationalist Forces, top secret, September 11, 1950, NARA, RG 218, Geographical File 1948–50, Entry: UD 7, 190: 1/27/01.

  21. Francis Heller, ed., The Korean War: A 25-Year Perspective (Lawrence, KS: Regents, 1977), 25.

  22. Harry S. Truman, Memoirs (New York: Doubleday, 1955–56), 2:355, 430–431; Donovan, Tumultuous Years, 262–264.

  23. See State Department, “General MacArthur’s Visit to Formosa,” memorandum, August 2, 1950, no. 794A.5/8–250, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 4; “Review of the international situation in Asia in the light of the Korean conflict,” memorandum, August 30, 1950, CAB 129/41, CP(50) 200.

  24. E. T. Biggs (British consul in Tamsui), “Summary of events in Formosa during the month of October 1950,”November 4, 1950, in Taiwan Political and Economic Reports 1861–1960, ed. Jarman, 9:168–175. For more about the Chinese representation issue at the United Nations, see Rosemary Foot, The Practice of Power: US Relations with China since 1949 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 22–51.

  25. CKSD, diary entries for September 30 and October 1 and 14, 1950, Box 48.

  26. Accinelli, Crisis and Commitment, 52; Kaufman, Confronting Communism, 40–41.

  27. Joint Strategic Plans Committee to the JCS, report on possible U.S. action in the event of open hostilities between the United States and China, December 27, 1950, NARA, RG 218, Geographical File 1948–50, Entry: UD 7, 190:1/27/01; CIA National Intelligence Estimate, “Consequences of the Early Employment of Chinese Nationalist Forces in Korea,” NIE-12, December 27, 1950, in CIA Research Reports: China, 1946–1976, reel 1. See Chapter 9 for further discussion.

  28. CKSD, diary entries for November 21 and 29, 1950, Box 48.

  29. Roger Buckley, The United States in the Asia-Pacific since 1945 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 70–74.

  30. For a fine analysis of the American role in the writing of the peace treaty between Taipei and Tokyo, see Su-ya Chang, “The United States and the Long-term Disposition of Taiwan in the Making of Peace with Japan, 1950–1952,” Asian Profile 16, no. 5 (1988): 459–470.

  31. Schonberger, Aftermath of War, 269–270; Michael M. Yoshitsu, Japan and the San Francisco Peace Settlement, Studies of the East Asian Institute (New York: Columbia University Press, 1982), 67–83.

  32. Townsend Hoopes, The Devil and John Foster Dulles (Boston: Little, Brown, 1973), 106–107; Richard H. Immerman, John Foster Dulles: Piety, Pragmatism, and Power in U.S. Foreign Policy (Wilmington, DE: SR Books, 1998), 30–37.

  33. George Yeh and Karl Rankin, minutes of conversation, June 7, 1951, 012/6–029; Wellington Koo and Dulles, minutes of conversation, June 19, 1951, AMFA-2, 012/16.

  34. CKSD, diary entry for September 9, 1951, Box 49.

  35. E. H. Jacobs-Larkcom (British consul in Tamsui) to Foreign Office, February 27, 1952, FO 371/99259 FC1019/19; Qin, ed., Zhonghua Minguo Zhongyao Shiliao Chubian, 7 (4), 861–870.

  36. Ibid., 1056–1060; Rankin, China Assignment, 115–117.

  37. Jacobs-Larkcom to Foreign Office, May 14, 1952, FO 371/99259 FC1019/42.

  38. See, for example, Wang, The Dust That Never Settles, 143–144.

  39. Richard C. Bush, At Cross Purposes: U.S.-Taiwan Relations since 1942 (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2004), 93–94.

  40. For a detailed analysis of the 1952 Sino-Japanese peace treaty and the creation of the Republic of China on Taiwan, see, for example, Man-houng Lin, Liewu, Jiaohun yu Rentong Weiji—Taiwan Dingwei Xinlun [A new historical perspective of Taiwan’s legal status] (Taipei, Taiwan: Liming Wenhua, 2008), 49–62; Tzu-chin Huang, “Zhanhou Taiwan Zhuquan Zhengyi yu ‘Zhong Ri Heping Tiaoyue’ ” [Disputes over Taiwan’s sovereignty and the Sino-Japanese Peace Treaty since World War II], Zhongyang Yanjiuyuan Jindaishi Yanjiusuo Jikan [Bulletin of the Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica] (Taipei) no. 54 (December 2006): 59–104.

  41. Chu Songqiu (Chiang Kai-shek’s secretary, 1954–1958), interview with author, August 8, 2007.

  42. Strong to State Department, July 8, 1950, no. 794A.00(W)/7–850, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 2; Strong to State Department, July 29, 1950, no. 794A.00(W)/7–2950, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 2.

  43. Steve Tsang, “Chiang Kai-shek and the Kuomintang’s Policy to Reconquer the Chinese Mainland, 1949–1958,” in In the Shadow of China: Political Development in Taiwan since 1949, ed. Steve Tsang (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1993), 69–71.

  44. According to Chu Songqiu, Chiang Kai-she
k’s secretary in the 1950s, Chiang was convinced that Zhang’s scholarly background would help build up a new KMT leadership image, attract more intellectuals to join the party, and stabilize the morale of the Taiwanese people. Chu Songqiu, interview with author, August 8, 2007.

  45. Bruce J. Dickson, “The Lessons of Defeat: The Reorganization of the Kuomintang on Taiwan, 1950–52,” China Quarterly, no. 133 (1993), 56–84; Li Yunhan, Zhongguo Guomindang Shishu, 4:74–80.

  46. Central Reform Committee, annual report, August 1952, CRCA, 6.4–2, reel 5.

  47. Minutes of the 30th CRC meeting, September 29, 1950, CRCA, 6.4–2, reel 1; Minutes of the 143rd CRC meeting, May 30, 1951, CRCA, 6.4–2, reel 4.

  48. Roy, Taiwan: A Political History, 84–85.

  49. Chen Yangde, Taiwan Difang Minxuan Lingdao Renwu di Biandong [Changes in locally elected leaders] (Taipei, Taiwan: Siji chubanshe, 1981), 120–125.

  50. Dickson, “The Lessons of Defeat,” 74–75; Steven J. Hood, The Kuomintang and the Democratization of Taiwan (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1987), 33–34.

  51. Minutes of the 87th CRC meeting, February 19, 1951, CRCA, 6.4–2, reel 2.

  52. State Department, “Land Reform on Formosa,” confidential security information, August 26, 1952, no. 794A.00/8–2652, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 2.

  53. Rankin to State Department, report on mutual security program in Formosa, January 9, 1953, no. 794A.5-MSP/1–953, Formosa 1950–1954, reel 4. See also F. A. Lumley, The Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek: Taiwan Today (London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1976), 69; Chen Cheng, Land Reform in Taiwan (Taipei, Taiwan: China Publishing, 1961), 47–48.

  54. Chi-kwan Mark’s study, based on British archival materials, indicates that, by 1953, the number of Third Force Chinese in Hong Kong was estimated at around 5,000, with approximately 15,000 followers of varying degrees of conviction. See Mark, Hong Kong and the Cold War: Anglo-American Relations, 1949–1957 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), 188.

  55. Livingston Merchant (deputy assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern affairs), memorandum, February 9, 1951, FRUS, 1951, vol. 7: Korea and China, Part 2, 1574–1578.