Foreign Relations of the US and China 1958-1960 - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages During the period of 1958-1960, there were a number of issues of contention between these two nations. Some of critical issues included the Taiwan Strait Crisis, the Tibetan rebellion, the rift between China and Soviet Union as well as the fluctuations between the relationship between the United States and the Chinese nationalists. Therefore, this period saw some incidents of significant between the relationships of the two countries.  Taiwan Strait Crisis During the period 1958-1960, the most important and critical event that took place was the Taiwan Strait Crisis. In this crisis, the government of the mainland attempted to attack the islands of Quemoy which were held by the nationalists, where as the United States supported the government that they recognized, which is the Chinese Nationalists of Taiwan. This increased the tension between both these countries and efforts were carried out to end this crisis (Bush, 2006). The context and the details of the crisis are mentioned below. During 1958, the Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek began to express his unrest at the restrictions of the United States that blocked his desired intention to return to the mainland. Chiang wanted to exploit the situation of instability in Taiwan. This had created a level of caution among the United States officials. In July 1958, there was a campaign launched to liberate Beijing and along with that, two nationalist planes were shot down. Chiang Kai-shek had already warned of an attack on Taiwan. This led to anxiety among the US policymakers that the control of airspace over the Taiwan Strait by the communist would result in the cutoff of supplies to the islands held by the Nationalists. As speculated, the forces of People's Republic of China began to attack Quemoy in 1958 with artillery (Carpenter, 2006). The President of the United States, Eisenhower got involved in this matter and agreed to help the ROC as per the terms of the U.S-ROC treaty. They reinforced the naval units to protect the lines of supplies leading to Quemoy. The Sidewinder air to air missiles were set up in defense.  The attacks continued and caused a causality of over 2500 soldiers in ROC (Tucker, 2005). The attacks resulted in many US allies getting concerned over the issue. Furthermore, the Premier of the Soviet Union Khrushchev wrote a public letter to the President Eisenhower taking a very aggressive stand of support of the Chinese of Taiwan, saying that any action on PRC would be a direct attack on China. Therefore, the crisis took a three dimensional turn. There was a series of communication between the two leaders of the countries. According to the US intelligence, it was found out that the Soviet Union was not prepared for any attacks and hence, the United States rejected the letter or Khrushchev publicly. There was immense international pressure building up to end the crisis and the President as well as the officials made efforts to convince Chiang Kai-Shek. The government of PRC was not at all ready to involve a third party such as the United Nations. Only in October 1958, the PRC agreed for a de facto cease fire, where the PRC Defense Minister P'eng Te-huai stated that they are ready to declare the cease fire and during this period, there should not be any convoy escorts for the supply. Even though Kai-Shek opposed it, the United States relented to it. Thus, the attack was withdrawn on the days of the Ceasefire. Towards the end ...Download file to see next pagesRead More