Word: quemoy
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...1950s and demanding better for the '60s in broad terms of mission and purpose. ("That." said he. "is the big issue.") But Nixon topped him with a sureness on cold war specifics. Most notable: Kennedy plumped for U.S. withdrawal from the offshore Nationalist Chinese islands of Quemoy and Matsu to facilitate an orderly defense of Formosa; Nixon warned quickly that withdrawal would start a "chain reaction": "The Communists." said he, "aren't after Quemoy and Matsu. They are after Formosa." He snapped at "the same kind of woolly thinking that led to disaster for America in Korea...
...Quemoy & Matsu. There were fewer than ten minutes left when a newsman threw Kennedy the question that made headlines: Since he favored withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Nationalist Chinese offshore islands of Quemoy and Matsu, couldn't that be interpreted as appeasement? Answered Kennedy: Administration experts including Secretary of State Herter (as Under Secretary in 1958) have declared Quemoy and Matsu strategically indefensible, so "we should consult with [the Nationalists] and attempt to work out a plan by which the line is drawn at the island of Formosa ... I think it is unwise to take the chance...
With that Kennedy left, walked down the corridor to his makeshift office. "You were great," said jubilant Bobby Kennedy, but Kennedyites sensed that Nixon had landed what they called an "emotional" punch in the exchange over Quemoy and Matsu. Said Jack: "Will somebody please get Jackie on the phone?" Richard Nixon, heading down Nebraska Avenue toward his Wesley Heights home, stopped at a traffic light, heard a motorist shout through the window: "You really clobbered him tonight." When he got home, one of his daughters met him at the door. "Daddy," cried she, "you did great!" A more impersonal reaction...
Administration would not win and could not stop [and] prevented half a dozen other threats from developing into war-Trieste, Iran, Guatemala, Formosa, Suez, Lebanon, Quemoy, West Berlin." At the same time, the Administration has built up "gigantic" but "balanced" military strength around the world, while closing the missile gap that it inherited from the Democrats. "The Eisenhower Administration today is putting 40 times more into [long-range] missiles each month than the previous Administration did in eight years." The Economy. At home, the Administration has spread the benefits of eco nomic prosperity "not by Government orders, edicts or controls...
...Catholicism makes him pretty much immune to any suspicion of "softness" toward Communism. Accordingly, he can take the political risks of proposing to "bring the Chinese into the nuclear test ban talks at Geneva," declaring himself "wholly opposed" to any U.S. commitment to defend the Nationalist islands of Quemoy and Matsu. He also has Connecticut Congressman Chester Bowles as his principal foreign policy adviser. U.S. Ambassador to India under Harry Truman, and a conspicuous liberal, Bowles advocates a "two Chinas" policy (i.e., the U.S. should cease to recognize the Nationalist Chinese government as the legitimate government of anything but Formosa...