794A.00/7–2351
Memorandum of Conversation, by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs (Merchant)
Subject: Conditions on Formosa
| Participants: | General Claire Chennault1 |
| FE—Mr. Merchant |
At the suggestion of a mutual friend, Ed Lockett, General Claire Chennault made an appointment and came in to see me today. He is in this country on leave, having left Formosa only nine days ago. I had known him slightly in China and we had a pleasant and, so far as I was concerned, informative talk. I gained the impression that he had dressed himself carefully and come to the State Department in the general attitude of holy water dealing with the devil.
At the outset he started off by saying that he thought the truce in Korea was a mistake because it would release Chinese military attention for operations against Burma or Indochina or Formosa and possibly all three. He also elaborated at some length his theory that if we [Page 1761] bombed with conventional weapons Mukden and the lines of supply from Mukden to the Yalu, we could reduce in two months the tonnage of supplies moving up to the front by 33⅓%, which would make it impossible for the Communists to maintain an effective force on the battle line.
I did not debate him in detail but referred to the Joint Chiefs’ testimony and the MacArthur hearings.
I questioned the General in detail on conditions on Formosa. He said that K. C. Wu2 has done a remarkable job and that in the past two years economic conditions have improved and the attitude of the Formosans toward the mainlanders has notably changed for the better. He described Formosa as the most peaceful country in the entire Far East with the exception of Japan. On guerrillas, he says there are comparatively few under the direction and effective command of the National Government, but that this is due only to lack of communications and lack of materiel. Both, he says, are being remedied from Formosa and he believes that, given communications facilities and adequate supplies of weapons and ammunition, it is within practical possibility to organize a million guerrillas responsive to the Generalissimo in China south of the Yangtze. He seemed to me very realistic in discussing the difficulties, the present ineffectiveness of guerrilla bands and the fact that many of them are nothing but bandits who are described as guerrillas by whatever government is in power. Kueichow, he says, is in a state of continuous uprising. He is hopeful also about conditions in all of Yenan [Yunnan], Kwangtung and Kwangsi.
General Chennault said that a considerable build-up by the Communists, particularly in air preparation, is going on on the invasion coast. The Amoy airfield has been lengthened to 8000 feet, paved, and its foundation greatly deepened. It can handle jets and heavy four-engine stuff. Similarly at Fuchow and a set of fields slightly in the interior, important preparations are being made. Flights of jets apparently come in one day and leave the next, down the coast as far as Canton and then back.
According to the General, morale in the CAF is poor because they are scared to death of jets, having none themselves. He expects raids against Formosa almost any week. CAF is still flying P–40s and a few P–38s and P–51s. They have “busted up” the last of the 250 Mosquitoes they got from Canada.
General Chennault was lyrical in his praise of Karl Rankin and on three occasions urged that he be named Ambassador, first because he deserved it and second because this would give a lift to the Nationalist morale. He also was full of praise for General Chase.
[Page 1762]I took occasion to say to the General that I trusted the Nationalists would not make any more difficulty over the Japanese treaty3 than they had already. I said I recognized they felt under compulsion to protest. I then went into a considerable explanation of the importance of securing an effective treaty which would permit the liquidation of the occupation and pointed out that with Nationalist participation this was impossible, I explained that there was no intention to embarrass or needlessly impair the prestige of the Nationalists and that it is this Government’s earnest desire to handle the matter in the most friendly possible but effective manner. General Chennault seemed greatly impressed and I am hopeful that he will do some good on this issue.
- Maj. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault, USAF, retired, was chairman of the board of Civil Air Transport, Inc.↩
- Governor of Taiwan Province, Republic of China.↩
- For documentation concerning the Japanese Peace Treaty, see vol. vi, Part 1, pp. 777 ff.↩