As the Korean War unofficially ended in 1953, concerns over the issue with Nationalist China and the increasing friction with the mainland were in danger of drawing the U.S. into a direct conflict. Ever since the Indo-China armistice was signed in 1954 tension had mounted and anything could happen. Red China’s Premier and Foreign Minister (Mr. Chou En lai) has stated definitely that his Government will not rest until Formosa is brought under its wing. Chiang Kai-shek is talking fight, too, and going through all the motions of preparing to fight his way back to the Chinese mainland. When Chiang Kai-shek was driven into exile on Formosa by the victorious Chinese Red Army in 1949, 2,000,000 of his people followed him there.
The refugees included 600,000 members of his forces, and 200,000 civil servants. Most of the rest were professional and business men.
American influence in Taiwan was based on two factors: United States economic and military aid to Chiang Kai-shek now runs to about $150,000,000 a year, The U.S. Navy’s Seventh Fleet protects Formosa from a Chinese Communist invasion across the Formosa Strait. Taiwan, for many reasons, is important to Western and Asian nations determined to resist further Communist penetration in Asia. Formosa, with the Philippines, the U.S. base on Okinawa, and Japan form a barrier guarding the western Pacific against excursions of the increasingly powerful Soviet Navy.
The issue is whether or not to up the friction by placing an embargo on shipping from Red China by way of the Formosa Straits. Such an act could be viewed as a provocation for war and this broadcast of Keys To The Capitol discusses the pros and cons such an act might cause.
Also, the subject of Alger Hiss is in the news. Two days after Thanksgiving Prisoner No 19137 at the Federal Penitentiary In Lewisburg Pa. will become Alger ‘Hiss again He will leave his flve-by-eight-foot cell In the southeast wing where the high barred window looks out onto other high barred windows He will turn In his prison uniform — his blue chambray- shirts and heavy cotton trousers He will be offered a going-away suit from the prison stocks He Is expected to decline In favor of a natural-fitting gray like those he wore in the higher’ echelons of the State Department In international conferences at Yalta and San Francisco in the United Nations and In the perjury trial that profoundly unsettled a nation and sent him to prison three and one-half years ago.
He is getting out on a conditional release having earned “meritorious good time” which was deducted from his original sentence of five years. Until March 21 1956 he will have to report at least once a month to a probation officer to tell where he’s living where he’s working how much he Is earning whom he’s seeing, If he sees the wrong people or engages In the wrong activities (these limitations are specific but will not be made public) or leaves the area without permission he can be sent back to prison The day he goes free November 27 he will be two weeks past his fiftieth birthday.
And finally, even though it was a ways off, it was never too soon for Democrats to think about the 1956 Presidential election. And after a series of decisive wins during the 1954 mid-terms, the Democratic leadership was looking for a path to duplicate that success in 1956 and was getting ready to gather all the interested parties together in New Orleans on December 3rd and 4th to elect a new chairman and discuss strategy.
And along with the developing story from Taiwan and the continuing pros and cons of a blockade, that’s just a little of what was being discussed on this episode of Keys To The Capitol from December 1, 1954 as heard over the NBC Radio Network.
