On August 23, 1958, Chinese Communists, led by Mao Zedong, began firing artillery shells at the Quemoy and Matsu Islands, the territory of the Chinese nationalists, who were based in Taiwan and led by Chiang-Kai Shek. Shortly following this attack, Chinese communists set up a blockade to prevent supplies from reaching the Chinese nationalist troops stationed on the islands. Despite concern for war, potentially nuclear, with China and the Soviet Union, President Dwight Eisenhower and the United States decided on August 29th to authorize naval escorts for Chinese National supply ships going to Quemoy, limiting the United States’ involvement to a supporting role.
The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, as this event is known, showed the United States’ desire to defend countries against communist aggression abroad. Previously, the United States had been focusing its energy on Europe. However, its readiness in the defense of an ally against communist aggression in the East projected its commitment to combating communism globally. The willingness of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff to consider and plan for nuclear war was apparent here. The United States enjoyed its superior nuclear capabilities as a means of deterring potential attackers on it or its allies. Here, the United States continued to honor the words of President Harry Truman in 1947, which laid out U.S. policy attempting to contain communist influence around the globe, and which would be later known as the Truman Doctrine. Nervous about the American monopoly on nuclear weapons, and their seeming willingness to use them, the Soviet Union started to stockpile their own as a way of ensuring mutual destruction if either side dared to fire.
The response to Chinese Communist aggression would be a talking point for then-Senator John F. Kennedy in his 1960 presidential campaign. Kennedy accused Eisenhower of not showing enough strength against communists and said his opponent in the campaign, President Eisenhower’s Vice President, Richard Nixon, would do the same. In the 1950s, the U.S. public was quite scared of communism and there was a taboo against being weak on communist affronts. There had been a purge of supposed communists from high levels of government due to public and governmental paranoia regarding communist infiltration. Labeling opponents soft on communism was a tactic that was almost guaranteed to win political points.
Coverage from The New York Times was more supportive of Eisenhower when he used the military resources at his disposal. Before the naval fleet was authorized to defend the Taiwan Strait, the Times noted that the United States Congress authorized the president to use military force for the defense of the Quemoy Islands in 1955. The Times also describes the increase of armed forces in the Taiwan region as “stepping up” to provide a “counterweight” to the Communists. Clearly, the Times would have enjoyed seeing more decisive military action against aggression from the Chinese Communists. Again considering the American public’s disdain for communism and anyone perceived as anything less than uncompromising on the issue, it is not a surprise that the Times felt this way as well.
Bibliography
Baker, Russell. “Capital Watches Far East ‘Closely’: U.S. Still Uncertain Of Red Aims In Taiwan Strait – Twining Sees President.” New York Times, Aug 26, 1958. 3.
Craig, Campbell, and Fredrik Logevall. America’s Cold War: The Politics of Insecurity. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2009.
Huei, Pang Yang. Strait Rituals: China, Taiwan, and the United States in the Taiwan Strait Crises, 1954–1958. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2019.
United Press International. “Pravda Cautions U.S. Over Taiwan: Says Soviet Will Give Peiping Moral And Material Aid In Struggle For ‘Liberation’.” New York Times, Aug 31, 1958. 1.