Word: formosae
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...would be completely irresponsible to indicate the course of action." Nixon thereupon took up a position that was substantially the longstanding Administration position: "In the event the attack was a prelude to an attack on Formosa-because the Chinese Communists say over and over again that their objective is not the offshore islands, that they consider them only Steppingstones to obtain Formosa -there isn't any question but that the United States would then honor our treaty obligations and stand by our ally, Formosa. To do what Senator Kennedy has suggested, to suggest that we will surrender these islands...
Said Kennedy in rebuttal: "Mr. Nixon suggests that the United States should go to war if these two islands are attacked. He wants us to be committed to the defense of these islands merely as a defense of a free territory, not as a part of the defense of Formosa. Admiral Yarnell, the commander of the Asiatic Fleet, has said that these islands are not worth the bones of a single American...
...forceful in his replies. Who won? Increasingly, people seemed to be judging the debating as theatrical performances, and this time partisans of each seemed to think their candidate had won. But the rest of the world had only begun to listen in on the Quemoy-Matsu issue. On Formosa, Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek's spokesmen angrily denounced Kennedy, promised to fight to the military limit for the islands. In Washington the State Department denied that negotiations were in progress (as Kennedy suggested) for removal of 100,000 Nationalist troops from the embattled islands, and privately complained that the debate...
...post-debate speeches Nixon refrained from the ''I will not give up one inch" line and talked of defending Quemoy and Matsu only if an attack was a "prelude to invasion" of Formosa. He got a helping hand from the White House, which said that the President and Vice President agreed "exactly." Kennedy no longer stressed that he wanted to move the Chinese Nationalists out of the is lands, and said he could go along with the "prelude to invasion" definition. There now seemed little open water between the two positions, though undoubtedly there would be many more...
...fall of 1954, five years after the Chinese Communists seized the mainland, they first bombarded Quemoy. The resulting pressures on the U.S. from Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek produced a Mutual Defense Treaty, committing the U.S. to aid in the defense of Formosa and the nearby Pescadores islands (see map). At President Eisenhower's behest, Congress in January 1955 passed the so-called Formosa Resolution authorizing the President to use American forces "as he deems necessary for the specific purpose of securing and protecting Formosa and the Pescadores against armed attack, this authority to include the securing and protection...