254. Letter From Secretary of State Dulles to President Chiang0
Dear Mr. President: Following my recent return from Jamaica I have read with interest your New Year’s Day message to the Chinese people.1 I was particularly impressed by your timely enunciation of the four points set forth in your reaffirmation of the Three People’s Principles. As you said so well, the Three People’s Principles are the “spearhead” and military force the “shield.”
I agree with your observation that the Communists have opened both a political and a military front and that the political front is on the mainland itself. In our natural desire to strengthen our military defenses against Communist aggression it is of the utmost importance that the political [Page 516] front not be neglected. The new extremes of oppression and cruelty to which the Communists have gone in the establishing of “communes” do, I believe, offer an opportunity for your Government to establish itself more firmly—in the eyes of the world as well as in the hearts of the Chinese people—as the true representative of China’s greatness and the spokesman of her aspirations for freedom.
As I said in my message to you of October 29, the Communiqué of October 23 has produced a very favorable reaction among the free world countries, as it has also in the United States. Regardless of the misunderstanding of the purpose of the Communiqué in some quarters, I am firmly convinced of the wisdom of the policy there expressed and believe that through stout adherence to it worldwide support of your Government can be further strengthened and the end of Communist tyranny on the mainland hastened.
Sincerely yours,
- Source: Department of State, Central Files, 793.00/1–1959. Confidential. Drafted by Bennett, revised in S/S, and cleared by Parsons.↩
- Portions of the message were sent to the Department in telegram 838 from Taipei, January 1. (Ibid., 793.00/1–159)↩
- Printed from a copy that bears this stamped signature.↩