Editorial Note
On January 27, 1953, John Foster Dulles, who had succeeded Dean Acheson as Secretary of State on January 21, delivered a national radio and television address which presented a survey of foreign policy problems. His remarks included the following statement:
“The Soviet Russians are making a drive to get Japan, not only through what they are doing in northern areas of the islands and in Korea but also through what they are doing in Indochina. If they could get this peninsula of Indochina, Siam, Burma, Malaya, they would have what is called the rice bowl of Asia. That’s the area from which the great peoples of Asia, great countries of Asia such as Japan and India, get, in large measure, their food. And you can see that, if the Soviet Union had control of the rice bowl of Asia, that would be another weapon which would tend to expand their control into Japan and into India. That is a growing danger; it is not only a bad situation because of the threat in the Asian countries that I refer to but also because the French, who are doing much of the fighting there, are making great effort; and that effort subtracts just that much from the capacity of their building a European army and making the contribution which otherwise they could be expected to make.”
For the full text of the address, see Department of State Bulletin, February 9, 1953, pages 212–216.