Word: formosae
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MACARTHUR: "I can tell you with considerable responsibility, Senator ... I went down to Formosa . . . The Generalissimo has probably in the neighborhood of a half million troops. The personnel is excellent. They are just exactly the same as these Red troops I am fighting. They have a good morale. Their material equipment is spotty . . . My own estimate would be after the material was there, that those troops would be in very good shape . . . within four months...
SENATOR LODGE OF MASSACHUSETTS: "What would happen with regard to Formosa if Chiang were to land on the mainland and then be wiped...
MACARTHUR: "Senator, that is a hypothesis that is very difficult to speculate upon. The basic concept . . . would be that Formosa should not be allowed to fall into Red hands ... I believe if it does, that you have not only lost every thing we gained in the Pacific war, but you have rolled our strategic frontier back from the little island groups that defend us now, all the way to the western coast...
Oddly enough, the report made almost no mention of Formosa, the question that had stirred up all the fuss. The transcript simply quoted Harry Truman as saying to the assembled staffs that he and the general had "talked fully about Formosa," and were "in complete agreement." Was that true? asked Massachusetts' Senator Leverett Saltonstall. "The agreement," answered MacArthur, "was that both of us had dropped the question of discussing [Formosa] there at Wake Island, [or] at any other time...
...believe sincerely that the fundamental interest of the British ... is involved in this question of the Western Pacific, and I believe most sincerely that they are cutting their own throats in ... such complete support of Red China, and . . . giving of Formosa into the hands of a potential Red enemy . . . We have enough brains and sense and integrity in both of those two great countries to reach a proper, sound, sane decision ... if we cannot come to such a just solution, with our allies, it practically means we are not allies...