标题: Los Angeles Times (Taiwan) [打印本页] 作者: choi 时间: 10-9-2012 10:56 标题: Los Angeles Times (Taiwan) (1) Scott Martelle, 'Ike's Bluff' Offers an Unconventional Take on Dwight D Eisenhower. Oct 7, 2012 http://www.latimes.com/features/books/la-ca-evan-thomas-20121007,0,7010092.story
(book review on Evan Thomas, Ike's Bluff; President Eisenhower's Secret Battle to Save the World. Little, Brown, 2012)
Two consecutive paragraphs:
"Thomas does make a convincing case that Eisenhower's ambiguity helped defuse a 1955 crisis in the Formosa Strait. China was trying to weaken the U.S. bond with the Nationalist Chinese on Formosa (now Taiwan). The Red Chinese army began shelling Quemoy and Matsu islands, just a few miles off the mainland and 100 miles from Formosa, in September 1954 to drive out some 70,000 Nationalist Chinese troops stationed there. Pressure grew on the U.S. to intervene, and in early 1955 Eisenhower made vague statements to reporters in which he left open the possibility of using nuclear weapons on Chinese military bases to defend Formosa.
"It's unclear whether Eisenhower's implied readiness to nuke Mao Tse-tung's airfields gave the Red Chinese pause, but an April 1955 conference among 29 former colonial nations did, Thomas writes. Faced with pressure not to provoke an American nuclear attack, Chinese foreign minister Chou En-lai responded 'flatly by saying that China did not want war with the United States' and called 'for talks to relieve the tension. The showdown in the Formosa Strait was over.'
Note:
(a) Chuencheng 春城釣蝦場 http://www.wretch.cc/blog/ChuenCheng
(b) Before I left Taiwan in 1984, there was an indoor fishing just around the corner, fifty yards from my home. I just assumed they were angling for fish. I never like fishing, because I caught nothing.