Word: formosae
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
WHEN the world crisis shifted last week to the Formosa Strait, Kansas-born, Philippines-bred Jim Bell, chief of TIME'S Hong Kong bureau, was right on the spot. Riding a Chinese Nationalist supply ship for Quemoy, he had just clambered over the side into a landing barge when Communist gunboats launched a surprise night attack. Getting ashore after a hair-raising trip under Red fire, he "sprinted up the beach as fast as an aging correspondent in blue button-down collar, British slacks and a pair of loose loafers could sprint." Three days later, airlifted off Quemoy...
...line to defend an ally from threat of attack. Last July's response to a cry of help from Lebanon was swift, effective and-as the world's non-Communist governments were bound to note-unchallenged by the big-talking Communists. The Chinese Communist threats to conquer Formosa, and the stepped-up attacks on the offshore Nationalist island of Quemoy (see FOREIGN NEWS), last week brought an equally powerful presidential warning that the U.S. would not hesitate to counterattack, and it brought prompt deployment of U.S. fighting forces. New element in the Quemoy warning: the U.S. was prepared...
...forced into counterattacks, would give back more than it got. If Communist aircraft attacked Quemoy or Formosa, U.S. forces might follow in hot pursuit to Communist mainland bases, might well bomb these bases...
...intends to go to the aid of the Chinese Nationalists "with fighting men" if Quemoy and Matsu are attacked, "would not wait until the situation was in extremis" before going in. One reason: the Communists have made clear that the offshore islands are but the first step to Formosa. Though the U.S. would obviously not fight over possession of the tiniest islands, "perhaps awash part of the time," it had drawn its no-trespassing line to include the ones that counted...
Show of Force. Studying the reports of artillery duels, the inconclusive sea skirmishes and occasional dogfights between MIGs and Sabre jets, the U.S. sought to decide how serious were Communist intentions in Formosa Strait and concluded that even a probing action required an unmistakable response. The dispatch to Formosan waters of the U.S. carrier Essex-which in mid-July was helping to land marines in Lebanon-and the dispatch from Pearl Harbor of the big Midway the next day were ordered to make a show of force and to dramatize U.S. concern. As an added evidence of U.S. activity, Secretary...