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

74. Telegram From the Embassy in the Soviet Union to the Department of State⁰

Moscow, September 7, 1958, 9 p.m.

548. Following is text of Khrushchev’s September 7 letter addressed to President:¹ “Mr. President: I am addressing myself to you on a question of great importance which, we are sure, is now occupying the minds of all to whom the cause of peace is dear.

“As a result of the policy being carried on by the USA in regard to China, and especially of the actions being undertaken at the present time by American Government in the area of the Chinese island of Taiwan and of the Taiwan Straits, a dangerous situation has arisen in the Far East. Humanity has again been put before the direct threat of the beginning of a military conflagration.

“In this responsible moment, the Government of the Soviet Union has decided to turn to the Government of the USA with an appeal to show sense, not to permit steps which could entail irreparable consequences.

“You well know, Mr. President, that the Soviet Union stands firmly on the position of the peaceful coexistence of all states, regardless of their social or state structure, and is in favor of not allowing the beginning of military conflicts, in order to assure conditions for a peaceful life for peoples on the whole globe. I think no one will dispute that the principles of peaceful coexistence have already received broad international recognition, and it can be said that for the overwhelming majority of states, they are the basis of their relations with other countries.

“Nevertheless, in the postwar years, as a result of the policy of the USA, a deeply abnormal situation has been continuously maintained in the Far East, the cause of which is the aggressive policy of the Government of the USA, a policy of war. The main reason for the tense and, it must be directly said, very very dangerous situation which has arisen is that the USA has seized age-old Chinese territory—the island of Taiwan with the Pescadores Islands—by force, is continuing to occupy these territories, cloaking this occupation with references to its support of the traitor of the Chinese people, Chiang Kai-shek, and is also trying to extend its aggression to the offshore Chinese islands.

“As the Soviet Govt has already stated many times in the Organization of the United Nations, as well as in correspondence with the Govt of the USA and govts of other powers, the situation is also inadmissible that a great state—the Chinese People’s Republic—as a result of the position taken by the Govt of the USA, is deprived of the opportunity to participate in the work of the Organization of the United Nations, and is not represented in that Organization, although it has a legitimate right to this.

“You also know as well as I do that the Chinese state is one of the founders of the UN and that by force of that circumstance alone the existing situation is absolutely abnormal and deeply unjust in regard to the Chinese people.

“The situation which has now arisen as a result of the actions of the USA in the area of the island of Taiwan and of the Taiwan Straits seriously disturbs the Soviet Govt and people. Indeed, I think, it will not be an exaggeration to say that it disturbs the whole world, every country, regardless of at what distance it is located from the Taiwan area. If you look squarely at the truth, you must acknowledge that the USA is trying to assume the functions of some sort of world gendarme in this area too. We think that for any state, regardless of how strong and influential it is, to take such a role on itself is an unworthy affair for a civilized state and quite risky.

“The Govt of the USA is carrying out military demonstrations trying to prevent the liberation of Taiwan and to keep this Chinese island as its military base, aimed above all against the Chinese People’s Republic, and also to hinder the lawful actions of the CPR directed at the liberation of the offshore islands on which Chiang-Kai-shekists have ensconced themselves.

“In the area of the Taiwan Straits, there is one of the strongest naval units of the American Navy—the Seventh Fleet of the USA. Hasty measures are being taken to strengthen this fleet, and military vessels and aviation are being transferred to the Far East from the USA, the Mediterranean Sea, and other areas. More than that, it has been announced that in the next few days, “joint maneuvers” of the Naval Forces and Marines of the USA and Chiang Kai-shek clique will be carried out in the Taiwan area, and that new contingents of American troops are being transferred to Taiwan on this pretext. The question arises whether such actions in the present situation can be assessed as other than an open provocation. It seems to us that with the most indulgent approach no other evaluation can be given to these actions.

“It must be said that, in general, the practice of urgently transferring naval vessels of the USA from one place to another has become a frequent phenomenon recently. In truth, by the direction of movement of the American Naval Fleet one can now judge almost without error to what place will be directed the spearhead of the next blackmail and provocations.

“Very recently the world was a witness to similar demonstrations of the American Navy in the Mediterranean Sea when the armed intervention of the USA into Lebanon was carried out and when the Sixth Fleet of the USA held the capital of Lebanon, and indeed that whole country, under the muzzles of its guns. When today attempts are being made to rattle the saber and threaten China, then, it seems to us, one should not forget that China is not small Lebanon which recently fell victim to foreign intervention, which has met universal condemnation at the just concluded special session of the UN General Assembly. The great 600 million Chinese people are powerful and unconquerable not only for their inexhaustible resources, but also for their solidarity in support of the govt, and are confidently and firmly moving on the path of the further development and strengthening of their country, the raising of their welfare, at which we, Soviet people, are truly happy and at which all those who wish the Chinese people well cannot but be happy. But I would want to emphasize not only this side of the matter, but also that China is not alone; it has true friends ready to go to its aid at any moment in case of aggression against China, since the interests of the security of People’s China are inseparable from the interests of the security of the Soviet Union.

“In connection with the practice of transporting war fleets and air units from one end of the globe to another, for example, the regions of the Near and Middle East, the Far East, Latin America etc. in order to bring pressure to bear here on some, there on other states and to attempt to dictate one’s will on them, in general the question arises—isn’t it time to finish with such actions which, it goes without saying, can in no way ever be recognized as normal methods in international relations. There arises the legitimate question—ought this not be discussed in the UN and a decision be adopted forbidding powers from employing such movement of its naval and air forces for purposes of blackmail and intimidation and to the effect that these forces would be held within the limits of their national frontiers. At the same time, in connection with the application of this kind of methods in the foreign policy of the USA, I would like to make one more remark.

“Does it not seem to you, Mr. President, that such transferring of military vessels now in one, now in another direction to a significant degree is now deprived of any sense—at least in the relations of states which have modern types of weapons at their disposal? I do not know what your military advisers tell you but it seems to us it must also not be unknown to them that the epoch of the flourishing of the power of surface naval fleets is over, has gone into the past. In the century of nuclear and rocket weapons of hitherto unheard of power and speed of action, these once threatening naval vessels are fit, in essence, only for paying courtesy visits, giving salutes, and can still serve as targets for appropriate types of missiles. Perhaps this will wound the self-esteem of people who are closely connected with fleets but what can you do, it is impossible not to reckon with indisputable facts.

“Nearly every day political and military leaders of the USA come out with threats addressed to People’s China. Such and only such a meaning have the repeated statements of USA Secretary of State Dulles about the activities of the USA in the region of the Taiwan Straits and in particular the statement which he made in your and his name on 4 September. This statement cannot but evoke the most decisive condemnation. It represents an open attempt of crude and unceremonious trampling of the sovereign rights of other states. The Govt of the USA having no rights for this permits itself arbitrarily to establish some kind of boundary of its interests and the sphere of operations of its armed forces on the territory of China. Such activities it is impossible to qualify otherwise than as aggressive, which undoubtedly will be condemned by all peoples.

“It is impossible to evaluate differently as well the statement of the Government of the USA of 6 September.

“The inciting statement of Minister of Defense McElroy draws special attention to itself in which are contained frank threats addressed to the Chinese People’s Republic, and in which attempts are made to justify the aggressive activities of American Armed Forces in the Far East and in which the Chiang Kai-shek clique is taken under protection. And the Commander of American Armed Forces on Taiwan Vice-Admiral Smoot has let himself go entirely and states the intention of the USA together with the Chiang Kai-shekists to inflict a defeat on Communist China.²

“Military leaders in the USA try even, with the tacit agreement of the American Government, to resort to atomic blackmail in relation to China, acting evidently still on inertia under the impression of the moods governing in Washington in that short period in the course of which the USA had at its disposal a monopoly of the atomic weapons. As is known, even at that time the policy of atomic blackmail did not have and could not have any success. Is it necessary to say that in present conditions when the USA has long not been the possessor of a monopoly in the field of atomic armaments, attempts to intimidate other states by atomic weapons are a completely hopeless business.

“I speak about this because, as it seems to me, in the USA there are still people who do not want to part with the policy of threats and atomic blackmail although, it would seem, each day gives no little evidence that such a policy henceforth is doomed to failure.

“One can with full confidence say that threats and blackmail cannot intimidate the Chinese people. This clearly follows also from the statement of the Premier of the State Council of the CPR Chou En-lai of 6 September.

“The Chinese People wants peace and defends peace but it does not fear war. If war will be thrust on China, whose people are full of determination to defend its rightful cause, then we have not the slightest doubt that the Chinese people will give a worthy rebuff to the aggressor.

“The aggressive preparations of the USA in the Far East, judging by everything, are not limited only to the region of the Taiwan Straits. There are facts to the effect that encouraged and instigated by the United States Syngman Rhee again is preparing military provocations and declaring his intention to move ‘in a march to the north’. Evidently someone in the US has definite plans once more to turn Korea into a field of bloody battle. It is not because, by the way, the Government of the USA so stubbornly refuses to withdraw its troops from South Korea? But it is impossible to permit a repetition of the Korean tragedy, and the criminal plots of the Syngman Rhee-ites must be stopped. There can be no doubts that if the Syngman Rhee-ites risk a repetition of their ‘march’, then there awaits them the same fate which befell them when the Korean people and the Chinese people’s volunteers inflicted a complete defeat on the aggressor and frustrated his plans. Of course responsibility for the provocations of Syngman Rhee lies entirely on the Government of the USA.

“At the recently concluded special session of the UN General Assembly, you, Mr. President, spoke about indirect aggression allegedly threatening certain Arab States of the Near East on the part of other Arab States, and called for the condemnation of this non-existent indirect aggression.³ At the same time the United States itself is carrying out in the Far East not only indirect but also direct aggression, by having seized the Chinese island of Taiwan and by supporting the anti-national clique of betrayers of the Chinese people, harbored on this island under the protection of American weapons and making from there bandit sorties against China.

“The dispatch of its armed forces to the region of Taiwan and the waters of the Pacific Ocean adjacent to it the Government of the USA usually seeks to justify with reference to some kind of ‘obligations’ undertaken by it in relation to the ‘defense’ of this region. But did the Chinese people ask the American Government to take on itself such an obligation, by referring to which it permits itself to hamper the realization by China of its sovereign rights in relation to Taiwan and other Chinese islands?

“The American people in the past itself had to beat off attempts of foreign powers to interfere in its internal affairs and by force of arms to impose their will on it. It is well known that these attempts ended lamentably for those who undertook them. Would it not be right to draw the appropriate conclusions from this historical experience of the United States and end the policy of interference in the internal affairs of China? Indeed if national independence is dear to the American people, then why should it be less dear to the Chinese people, as well as to any other people?

“It is possible you will find what I have said above as harsh. But I do not permit myself to agree with this. In this letter to you, as also on other occasions, I simply wish to express myself frankly and to emphasize the whole danger of the situation developing in the region of Taiwan and the Chinese off-shore islands as result of actions of the USA. If we were to hide our thoughts behind outwardly polite diplomatic formulations, then, I think it would be more difficult to understand each other. Moreover, we desire, that you, the Goverment of the USA and the whole American people with whom we wish only good relations and friendship should have a correct idea about those consequences which the present actions of the USA in the Far East might have.

“It would be a serious miscalculation if in the United States the conclusion were drawn that it was possible to deal with China in accordance with the example as it was done by certain powers in the past. Such kind of miscalculation might have serious consequences for the cause of peace in the whole world. Therefore let us introduce into the question full clarity because reservations and misunderstandings in such affairs are most dangerous.

“An attack on the Chinese People’s Republic, which is a great friend, ally and neighbor of our country, is an attack on the Soviet Union. True to its duty, our country will do everything in order together with People’s China to defend the security of both states, the interests of peace in the Far East, the interest of peace in the whole world.

“Nothing would be further from the truth than an attempt to assess this, my message to you, as an intention to exaggerate unnecessarily and even more to utter some kind of threats. We desire only to draw your attention to the situation from which no one can escape—neither you nor we—if in the Far East the fire of war breaks out. We wish to find a common language with you with which to cease the present movement downward on the inclined slope, with which by the common efforts of the USSR, the USA, the Chinese People’s Republic and other countries to remove the tension arising in the Far East, with which it might be possible to say that through united efforts a useful contribution (poleznoedelo) was made in the interest of peace in the whole world.

“Of course to decide ‘to recognize’ or ‘not to recognize’ the Chinese People’s Republic is an affair of Government of the USA itself. In this connection it is possible only to remark that neither the very fact of the existence of the CPR as one of the great powers of the world, nor the role which this government plays in our time in international relations, is changed because of that. But at the present time in view of the policy which the Government of the United States follows in relation to China such a situation has arisen that the question of the relationship of the United States to China obviously extends beyond the framework of purely internal affairs of the United States.

“A situation has arisen which involves the interests of many countries. The tension artificially maintained in view of the policy of the USA in the relations between the United States and China and even more such actions which the United States is undertaking at the present moment in the Far East will lead also to a straining of relations between all great powers—the founders of the UN. It is possible without exaggerating to say that the present policy of the USA in relation to China complicates the solution of many important international questions and in a serious form hampers the normal activity of the UN as an international organization called upon to guard the cause of peace.

“There is one Chinese state and it is located in China and nowhere else and Taiwan and the other Chinese islands where at the moment the Chiang Kai-shekists have ensconced themselves—these are a part of China.

“Only the Government of China—in the capital of China—Peking and to which the many million Chinese people have entrusted the leadership of their country has the right and the real possibility to represent China in international relations. And only the unrealistic position of the Government of the USA which still prefers to close its eyes to the actual state of affairs in China, is a stumbling block, prevents the states members of the UN from taking the only correct decision—to throw out of this organization the political corpse of the Chiang Kai-shekist imposter and to grant the representatives great China their legal place in the UN.

“Who will deny that China is attempting to free its own territory which has been transformed into a military base of a foreign power and which has become a source of continual threat for peaceful life of the Chinese people?

“China has the full legal right to take all necessary measures against the traitor Chiang Kai-shek. It is taking these measures on its own soil and is not sending its armed forces on the territory of other countries. These actions of the Chinese People’s Republic represent only legitimate measures of self-defense, foreseen also by the Charter of the United Nations Organization. Quite otherwise acts the Government of the USA which is trying to confer upon itself the right to send its armed forces thousands and thousands of kilometers from the USA for the retention of the Chinese islands seized by it. It is not by accident that even the Allies of the United States in the military blocs quite loudly censure American policy in relation to China as unrealistic and dangerous.

“I think that every person who displays a real anxiety for the fate of peace can not but speak out for having an end put to that abnormal and dangerous situation which has developed as a result of the current political course of the Government of the USA in the Far East. For that, according to the conviction of the Soviet Government, above all it is necessary to give up the narrow and alien-to-all-reality approach to the great historical changes which have taken place in China, it is necessary to recognize the legitimate rights and interests of the Chinese People’s Republic and once and for all to cease the policy of provocation and blackmail in connection with the Chinese people.

“In the Far East there can not be a stable peace until such time as the American Navy fleet will be withdrawn from the Taiwan Straits, until American soldiers will leave the Chinese island of Taiwan and will go home. We are convinced that such an opinion is shared not only by the Soviet Union and other Socialist states but also by all other countries for whom the cause of peace is dear in the Far East and in the whole world.

“Mr. President, concluding my present message to you, dictated by a sense of the great responsibility which lies upon our countries for the preservation of peace in the whole world, I wish with all force to emphasize that whether peace will reign in the Far East or whether this region will continue to remain a dangerous hotbed of war will depend fully on the further actions of the Government of the USA. I should like to hope that you with the necessary understanding will apprehend the present message to you from the side of the Soviet Government. I permit myself to express also the confidence that this message will be correctly understood by all the American people which—we are convinced of this—like other peoples desire peace and do not desire war.

“If the Government of the USA will take the road of respect for the legitimate sovereign rights of the great Chinese people then this doubtless will be regarded with satisfaction by all peoples as a serious contribution of the people of the United States of America to the cause of strengthening of universal peace.

“Sincerely, N. Khrushchev.”

Davis

0. Source: Department of State, Central Files, 611.00/9–758. Official Use Only; Niact. Transmitted in three sections. Received at 5:59 p.m. Repeated priority to London, Paris, Taipei, and Hong Kong.
1. Telegram 547 from Moscow, September 7, reported that First Deputy Foreign Minister Vasili Vasilievich Kuznetsov had given Davis a copy of a letter from Soviet Council of Ministers Chairman Nikita S. Khrushchev to President Eisenhower, calling his attention to the last two paragraphs. (Ibid.) For text as transmitted in telegram 548, see Department of State Bulletin, September 29, 1958, pp, 499–503; extracts are in American Foreign Policy: Current Documents, 1958, pp. 1149–1152. A somewhat different translation was published in Soviet News on September 9; also in Documents on International Affairs, 1958, pp. 182–189.
2. Telegram 183 to Taipei, September 4, referred to a United Press report from Taipei that Admiral Smoot had made the statement “We will lick them” at a news conference. It stressed the importance of exercising utmost care in any public statements. (Department of State, Central Files, 611.93/9–458)
3. Reference is to Eisenhower’s address before the Third Emergency Special Session of the U.N. General Assembly on August 13; for text, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1958, pp. 606–616.