No. 26
Editorial Note
During a visit to Formosa between October 30 and November 4, Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs John M. Allison met with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek, President of the Republic of China. No memorandum of the conversation has been found in Department of State files, but despatch 617 from Taipei, May 21, 1953, which summarizes developments during the preceding 3 years regarding the Nationalist troops in Burma, describes the portion of the conversation concerning this subject as follows:
“Assistant Secretary Allison discussed the Li Mi question with President Chiang during the former’s visit to Formosa at the end of October 1952. The President brought the subject up with a request for aid for these troops, and appeared very much opposed to any plan for evacuating them. Mr. Allison expressed the view that whatever value these troops may have had in the past, it was apparent that they were now a liability to the anti-Communist cause and a disruptive factor in Southeast Asia, and that an effort should be made to withdraw them from Burma. President Chiang emphatically disagreed.” (690B.9321/5–2153)