THE NATION: Counterthrust in the Pacific

For month after endless month, the cause of freedom had been on the retreat in the Far East. There was truce without victory in Korea, then armistice with defeat in Indo-China. Flushed with success, the Chinese Communists began to reach out for more, boldly attacking Nationalist-held stepping-stone islands between the China mainland and For mosa. Meanwhile, the diplomatic offensive for the recognition of Red China drew more and more support from certain U.S. allies. Last week the U.S. completed a diplomatic counterthrust.

In a reception room on the fifth floor of the State Department building in Washington, the U.S. Secretary of State and Nationalist China's Foreign Minister signed a mutual-defense treaty. When the ceremony was over, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles shook the hand of Foreign Minister George K.C. (for Kung-Chao) Yeh, and uttered a most significant foreign-policy pronouncement. Said Dulles: "It is my hope that the signing of this defense treaty will put to rest once and for all rumors and reports that the U.S. will in any manner agree to the abandonment of Formosa and the Pescadores to Communist control."

For the U.S. and Nationalist China, the treaty pledged that each will regard an attack on the other's territory in the West Pacific as "dangerous to its own peace and safety." For the Chinese Communist regime, it was a clear, unequivocal warning that an attack on Nationalistheld Formosa or the Pescadores will bring quick response by U.S. forces. Did it mean that a Communist attack on Formosa would touch off U.S. retaliation on the mainland of China? Said Secretary Dulles: "That would be a probable result."

The resulting position is this: the Chinese Communists are publicly and solemnly committed to the conquest of Formosa. The U.S., with the signing of the new treaty, is publicly and solemnly committed to defend Formosa against attack. This clarification makes pointless any further argument about the admission of Red China to the U.N.