Foreign Relations of the United States, 1958–1960, China, Volume XIX

211. Memorandum of Conversation Between Secretary of State Dulles and President Eisenhower⁰

Washington, October 24, 1958, 10:45 a.m.

1. I went over with the President the draft of the statement which I proposed to make to the press following our conference. The President went over this and made one or two minor changes. Thereupon Mr. Hagerty came in and I gave him a copy for mimeographing.¹

2. I then submitted to the President the proposed letter from him to the Gimo. He made one minor change in drafting and authorized it to be sent.²

3. I then reported to the President at some length on my private talks with the Generalissimo. I pointed out that there was some considerable difficulty in getting the “non-force” declaration. I felt, however, that my talks with the Gimo about the non-use of force and also about the unsoundness of identifying his cause with two exposed pieces of real estate such as the Quemoys and the Matsus had had some effect. I did not see any possibility of his abandoning the islands, but I did think that if there were a period of lull the forces on Quemoy would be substantially reduced by between 15,000 and 20,000 persons pursuant to a military rearrangement cutting back the number of present divisions. I also said that if anything like an armistice could be arranged, I would see no great difficulty in a further very substantial change in the character of the Nationalists’ presence on the offshore islands. Apparently, however, the Chinese Communists were determined to keep the civil war revived and in a state of at least sporadic fighting activity.

The President expressed the opinion that my trip had been useful. He suggested that it would be useful for me to try to keep up a certain measure of personal correspondence with the Gimo.

[Here follows discussion of unrelated subjects.]

JFD

0. Source: Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, Meetings with the President. Secret; Personal and Private. Drafted by Dulles.
1. For text of the statement released to the press at the conclusion of this meeting, see American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1958, pp. 1185–1186. Dulles’ draft with Eisenhower’s revisions is filed with his notes for the meeting. (Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, Meetings with the President)
2. See Document 212. Dulles’ draft with Eisenhower’s revision is in the Eisenhower Library, Dulles Papers, Meetings with the President.