United States Opposition to Use of Force in the Taiwan Strait, 1954-1962

Abstract

Relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China during the 1950s were strained by the United States policy of containment and isolation toward China and by combat in Korea. Despite that diplomatic and military hostility, a clearly defined policy of opposition to the use of force in the Taiwan Strait, which separated the Chinese Communists from the Chinese Nationalists, had slowly evolved. Early fears of a resumption of the Chinese civil war in the Taiwan Strait had first been alleviated when President Harry S. Truman ordered the United States Seventh Fleet to patrol the area in June 1950, setting a precedent for opposition to the use of force. As a result, the prospect of conflict had lain dormant until the offshore islands held by the Nationalists were bombarded by Communist forces from the in the autumn of 1954. A United States commitment to help defend the Republic of China on Taiwan soon emerged, and the resulting defense pact established the policy of nonuse of force in the Taiwan Strait. During the following eight years, events surrounding the second Taiwan Strait crisis of 1958 led to a severe test and the refinement of that policy. The diplomatic negotiations that took place between 1954 and 1962 revealed serious disagreements between the United States and the Nationalist government on Taiwan. Differences in objectives and in the interpretation of the 1954 defense pact resulted in a divisive alliance; rather than form a harmonious relationship, the United States and the Republic of China on Taiwan grew farther apart from and distrustful of one another. The cautious and moderate policy of avoidance of force ran counter both to the Chinese Communist policy to reunify Taiwan with the and to the Chinese Nationalist policy to recover the mainland (hui-fu da-lu). The Nationalist government's extensive military and economic reliance on the United States, however, allowed the United States to remain firm in opposing the use of force in the Taiwan dispute.