893.50 Recovery/10–2148: Telegram
The Ambassador in China (Stuart) to the Secretary of State
[Received October 21—8:20 a.m.]
1961. At weekly press conference of Chinese Government Information Office held on October 21, Hollington Tong made following statement when asked to comment on R. D. Lapham’s Washington press conference:18 (see Embtel 1949, October 2019).
“Mr. Lapham’s statement is a heartening augury for China.
The extension of American aid to China through the full 4-year period of the Marshall Plan,20 as he suggests, would give virtual assurance of China’s triumph over its present difficulties. Uncertainty concerning the renewal of American aid has been a restraining factor in Chinese public opinion. Mr. Lapham’s endorsement of such a program will give a new spirit to our endeavors.
I was also delighted by Mr. Lapham’s realistic recognition that American aid will benefit the US as well as China. There has been much unclarity in American public thinking on this point.
The world is beginning to realize that China’s struggle with the Communists has as its stakes the whole future of the Asiatic Continent. In waging this struggle, China is fighting, not alone for itself, but for the whole Asiatic position of democracy.
Certainly the US has an intrinsic interest in the outcome of this conflict. In addition to the efforts exerted by herself, continuing American aid to China will spell the final doom of the Chinese Communists.”
Sent Department 1966 [1961], repeated Shanghai 968.
- Roger D. Lapham, Chief of the ECA China Mission; conference held on October 18.↩
- Not printed.↩
- Made public by the Secretary of State in Commencement exercises at Harvard University on June 5, 1947; for text, see Department of State Bulletin, June 15, 1947, p. 1159. For documentation, see Foreign Relations, 1947, vol. iii, pp. 197 ff., under the title “The Political and Economic Crisis in Europe and the United States Response”.↩