Word: formosae
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...sharpest interchanges, in a hearing where there were few, came right at the start. California's William F. Knowland, the best prepared questioner on the Republican side, demanded that the State Department release for publication a directive it had sent out in December 1949 declaring that "Formosa has no special military significance," and ordering its missions to combat "the mistaken popular conception of its strategic importance to the U.S. defense in the Pacific...
Acheson argued that it was nothing but "policy information paper" for the guidance of U.S. propaganda efforts and he cited the first paragraph, which read: "To formulate information policy which will minimize damage to United States prestige and others' morale by the possible fall of Formosa to the Chinese Communist forces." Acheson made no attempt to defend what the directive said as the truth: it was just propaganda, and therefore-at least in his interpretation- permissible playing with the truth...
Chin Up. In the fall of 1949, said Acheson, "it was the clear, unequivocal recommendations of the military services that we could not employ any of our forces for the defense of Formosa [see box]. It was estimated that no amount of U.S. aid short of military occupation and control would insure Taiwan's indefinite survival as a non-Communist area . . . Without U.S. military occupation and control, Taiwan,* like the rest of China, probably would be under the Communist Chinese control...
...Using Chiang's Troops: "In our opinion, the Nationalist troops on Formosa had very limited capabilities, particularly for offensive action . . . Their leadership, equipment and training were all of such a state that they would be of limited use in offensive operations...
Reporters jumped on the term "year." Did the President mean he had been considering firing MacArthur for a full twelve months? Yes, said Truman-particularly after MacArthur wrote his letter to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in August (which urged the U.S. to hold Formosa as strategically vital to U.S. defense, when the President wanted to "neutralize...