Office of the Historian

28. Memorandum From the Ambassador to the Republic of China (Wright) to Secretary of State Rusk1

Taipei, April 17, 1964.

The following three points were omitted from the record of your after dinner conversation with President Chiang the evening of April 16 because of their extremely high classification.

(1)
In describing the almost unimaginable power of the United States nuclear arsenal, you told the President that the United States had [Page 55] in place in Western Europe weapons with a destructive power 150,000 times the capacity of those used in the course of World War II. This was only a fraction of the total U.S. arsenal. You mentioned to the President that this figure was very highly classified.
(2)
In connection with his expression of confidence in U.S. support for the GRC position in the UN, President Chiang stated that he relied on the promise President Kennedy had made that in case of absolute necessity the United States would use the veto to keep the Chinese Communists out of the UN. You later assured the President that although there had been a change of Presidents in the United States, the U.S. position remained unchanged. President Chiang replied he had full confidence in that.
(3)
At the end of the conversation, President Chiang said he wanted to express his appreciation to President Johnson for having reiterated the seven points which President Kennedy had made to him in the spring of 1962.2 He was gratified and would continue to proceed on that basis.
  1. Source: Department of State, Conference Files: Lot 66 D 110, CF 2384/E. Top Secret; No Distribution. Drafted by Clough. Filed as an enclosure to a note from Wright to Rusk, stating that it covered three highly classified points from his after dinner conversation with Chiang.↩
  2. The reference is to the seven points set forth in a memorandum of March 31, 1962, to Cline; see Foreign Relations, 1961–1963, vol. XXII, p. 206–207. Airgram A–943 from Taipei, April 27, noted that according to the GRC record of the conversation, Chiang stated that Johnson had reiterated the seven points in his letter. (Department of State, Central Files, POL 15–1 CHINAT)↩