29. Memorandum of Conference With President Eisenhower 0
OTHERS PRESENT
- General Twining
- General Goodpaster
General Twining said that the Chiefs had been considering the situation in China, in the Formosa Straits area. They have started the preparation of contingency plans, and have alerted commanders in the area, but have directed no specific action. He understood the matter would come up for consideration in the NSC this week, and commented that the situation is unclear, perhaps intentionally so, with respect to the objective of defending the offshore islands. The President said he had spoken to Gordon Gray a few minutes earlier on this same subject, and had suggested it might be best to have just the statutory NSC members meet with him to discuss the question. He confirmed that the picture is cloudy regarding the offshore islands. There are good reasons for taking the view that they should be abandoned. However, a great part of the Chinese Nationalist forces are now deployed on the islands, and their removal or loss would be a signal to all of Asia that there is no hope that can be held out against the Communists in China. General Twining commented that the military authorities are concentrating on getting the F–86s on the islands into operational status quickly.
[Here follows discussion of unrelated matters.]
Brigadier General, USA
- Source: Eisenhower Library, Whitman File, DDE Diaries. Secret. Prepared by Goodpaster. The time of the meeting is taken from Eisenhower’s appointment diary. (Ibid., President’s Daily Appointments)↩