Office of the Historian

Eisenhower Library, Eisenhower papers, Whitman file, Dulles-Herter Series

1

No. 403
Memorandum by the Secretary of State to the President

secret
Washington, November 23, 1954.

I have just initialed with George Yeh, the Chinese Foreign Minister, the draft of a Mutual Security Treaty and of a note which will be exchanged.

The Treaty covers an attack directed against Formosa and the Pescadores. The note will in substance recognize that the Chinese will not use force from either Formosa, the Pescadores or the offshore islands without our agreement and will not transfer military equipment and the like from Formosa to the offshore islands without our agreement.

This has been a difficult negotiation but the result, I believe, stakes out unqualifiedly our interest in Formosa and the Pescadores and does so on a basis which will not enable the Chinese Nationalists to involve us in a war with Communist China.

I have been in touch throughout these negotiations with the Far Eastern Subcommittee, including Senator George and Senator Knowland, and they are in full accord with what we have done. The only member of the Subcommittee we have not seen is Senator Hickenlooper, who has been out of town. We see him tomorrow.2

JFD
  1. A copy of this memorandum can also be found in Department of State files. (793.00/11–2354)↩
  2. This sentence appears in Dulles’ handwriting on the source text.↩