No. 772
Editorial Note
The memorandum of a telephone call received by Dulles from the President early in the evening of June 22 reads: “The Pres. said he has to talk with editors this evening and wondered about giving them something to clarify their minds re the Western Pacific. He mentioned Japan with 85 million people, the importance of trade, the importance of SEA etc. to keep them in our orbit. He had talked about Japan before some Congressmen. The Sec. said it sounded all right to him.” (Memorandum prepared by Phyllis D. Bernau, Eisenhower Library, Dulles papers, “Telephone Conversations”)
[Page 1663]In his remarks later that evening before the National Editorial Association the President outlined the problems faced by the United States in determining the extent of its foreign aid, the degree to which it was prepared to allow or agree to its allies’ trade with Communist states, the degree to which it would become involved in Southeast Asia, and the amount of trade it should itself engage in with countries with lower labor and living standards. He continued:
“Well now, my friends, I want to take a situation in the world that focuses all of these considerations and these facts upon one particular problem that we have to solve. Over in the western Pacific, the key to its defense is Japan. Japan comprises 85 million people—industrious, hardworking, inventive. Actually, the power that they developed against us in World War II was such as to be frightening when we saw what they could do alone. Consequently, it becomes absolutely mandatory to us, and to our safety, that the Japanese nation does not fall under the domination of the Iron Curtain countries, or specifically the Kremlin. If the Kremlin controls them, all of that great war-making capacity would be turned against the free world. All of the soldiers, all of the armies, all of the air force, they could use. Japan would be given the task of producing all the great navies that they need. And the Pacific would become a Communist lake.
“Now, my friends, what is Japan? Eighty-five million people, living on an area no larger than California. Now we of course admit that California is a very wonderful and prosperous place, but as yet there are not 85 million people there. And even if there were, they would have access to all the markets of the United States on a free basis.
“Japan cannot live, and Japan cannot remain in the free world unless something is done to allow her to make a living.
“Now, if we will not give her any money, if we will not trade with her, if we will not allow her to trade with the Reds, if we will not try to defend in any way the southeast Asian area where she has a partial trade opportunity, what is to happen to Japan?
“It is going to the Communists.
“Now, no one of these programs pursued alone could possibly help Japan; and any one of them pursued to an extreme would ruin us.”
For the full text of his address, see Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1954 (Washington, Government Printing Office, 1960), pages 585–590.