The U.S. Policy Toward the R.O.C. in the Early 1950s──Based on the Analysis of FRUS

• Main Authors: Mei-chiao Huang, 黃美嬌
• Other Authors: 齊茂吉
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/arjqt9

碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 歷史研究所在職專班 === 102 === After World War II, the world was divided into two camps due to the ideological antagonism between the United States (the U.S.) and the Soviet Union, and the Cold War began. The U.S. started to implement the policy of containment toward the Soviet Union bloc to prevent the expansion of communism from jeopardizing the U.S. national interests. In 1949, the Nationalist Government relocated to Taiwan. To keep the Chinese Communist Party from joining the Soviet Union bloc, the U.S. did not provide Taiwan with military aid at the time, taking a hands-off position on the future of the Republic of China (the R.O.C.). In June of 1950, the Korean War broke out. The U.S. President Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) declared the neutralization of Taiwan Strait to avoid any armed hostilities in the strait to secure the safety of the U.S. defense line in the Western Pacific. In March of 1953, to force the People’s Republic of China (the P.R.C.) to concur on the armistice agreement of the Korean War, Truman’s successor Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969) issued a statement to lift the neutralization of Taiwan Strait. After the Korean War, the P.R.C. became a great power rival hostile to the United States in the Far East during the Cold War. The Truman government had been assisting the R.O.C. military to raid against the P.R.C. along the coast of mainland China to concentrate the P.R.C. force on the Korean Peninsula during the Korean War. To achieve its end of liberating Taiwan as well as to obstruct the signing of Mutual Defense Treaty between the R.O.C. and the U.S., the P.R.C. bombarded Kinmen on September 3, 1954, setting off the First Taiwan Strait Crisis. On condition that the R.O.C. government concurred on the truce negotiation of the United Nations Security Council, the Eisenhower government eventually signed the Mutual Defense Treaty with the R.O.C., declaring to assist in defending Taiwan and the Pescadores. Thus the U.S. hands-off policy toward the R.O.C. set by the Truman government was foundamentally changed.