Editorial Note
In his State of the Union Address to Congress, February 2, 1953, President Eisenhower placed the war in Indochina in the context of the struggle against Communism in the Far East and described it as part of the overall effort for Western security. The address read in part as follows:
“Our policy will be designed to foster the advent of practical unity in Western Europe. The nations of that region have contributed notably to the effort of sustaining the security of the free world. From the jungles of Indochina and Malaya to the northern shores of Europe, they have vastly improved their defensive strength. Where called upon to do so, they have made costly and bitter sacrifices to hold the line of freedom.
. . . . . . .
“In this general discussion of our foreign policy, I must make special mention of the war in Korea.
[Page 377]“This war is, for Americans, the most painful phase of Communist aggression throughout the world. It is clearly a part of the same calculated assault that the aggressor is simultaneously pressing in Indochina and in Malaya, and of the strategic situation that manifestly embraces the island of Formosa and the Chinese Nationalist forces there. The working out of any military solution to the Korean war will inevitably affect all these areas.”
For the full text of the address, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1953 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1960), pages 12–34.