179. Memorandum of Conference With President Eisenhower0
OTHERS PRESENT
- General Twining
- General Goodpaster
General Twining first reported that we plan to have our troops out of Lebanon by the thirty-first of October. The British will begin moving out of Jordan on October 24, and expect to be out completely by November 10. The two U.S. Marine battalions will remain afloat in the Eastern Mediterranean.
General Twining said the Chiefs had met with Secretary Dulles Friday1 concerning the cease-fire situation in Taiwan, and consensus was that it would be wise to wait until the artillery fire “quiets” and then withdraw at least two-thirds of the Chinese Nationalist troops from Quemoy. The possibility of demilitarizing the off-shore islands was discussed; it raised difficult problems, but Mr. Dulles undertook to try to work them out.
The President said that, on reaching this consensus about getting troops out without loss of face in the area, the next step is to convince Chiang on the matter. We must accomplish our end through persuasion rather than pressure, since otherwise we will be charged with reversing the stand we have taken. General Twining said he thought Secretary Dulles believed it would not be too difficult to get the two-thirds of the [Page 382] force off the islands. The President commented that the big thing is not to do this under fire, or under threat. In this connection, the fact that the Chinese Communists have suspended firing for two weeks implies that they will start up again and this keeps us under some sense of pressure. If an indefinite suspension of firing were to be achieved, we would be in better position to persuade Chiang that the islands should be regarded simply as an outpost with relatively small forces.
General Twining said that there is help we could offer Chiang in return for his removing forces from the island. We could guarantee the evacuation; we could modernize his Army; we could partially modernize his Air Force, although this would be very expensive; we could give him shipping and amphibious lift to enlarge his capabilities for flexible action; perhaps we could even give him additional economic aid.
General Twining concluded by informing the President of a report from General Doan, Chief of the MAAG in the area, indicating that, on Quemoy, morale is very high, the damage suffered from firing was quite slight, and that the command is in very good shape. He added that the Chinese Nationalists have rapidly developed a capability for delivery of supplies to the islands by junks, and that the supply problem had been broken before the cease-fire began.
Brigadier General, USA
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, DDE Diaries. Secret. Prepared by Goodpaster on October 15.↩
- October 10; see Document 173.↩