Taiwan Today

Minister of National Defense Chiang Ching-kuo returned from a l0-day, late September visit to the United States convinced that the moment for mainland counterattack and national recovery is fast approaching. As the guest of U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, General Chiang had wide-ranging contacts with American officials, including President Lyndon B. Johnson. The 55-year-old elder son of President Chiang Kai-shek found an extensive identity of views between the U.S. and Chinese governments on world problems and what must be done about Asian crises.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minister Chiang's call on President Lyndon Johnson (top) September 23 followed talks with Secretary of State Dean Rusk (right), Defense Secretary McNamara, and McGeorge Bundy, White House special assistant for national security affairs. These three men are reputed to be the most influential in advising President Johnson on American foreign policy. Actually, the Chinese defense chief was renewing acquaintance with the American chief executive, whom he met in Taipei in 1961 and again in Washington in 1963. Johnson was vice president at the time of the previous meetings. General Chiang's most recent consultations were described as "most beneficial". The United States assured that there has been no change in its stand against the Chinese Red regime.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Warm smile of Chiang Ching-kuo helped him make friend wherever he went - from the State Department (top) to Pentagon (bottom). He called on former President Eisenhower and gave him a Chinese-style painting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Full military honors were accorded Minister Chiang at important military bases from Hawaii to the Atlantic coast of America. In turn, he paid China’s tribute to U.S. war dead at the Pacific Memorial Cemetery near Honolulu and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. In meeting many of America's top military leaders, he was renewing old friendships that began on Taiwan or on the occasion of his previous visits to the United States. He also had far-reaching discussions with U.S. diplomatic, internal security, and intelligence chiefs. His many meetings with the press included a luncheon with the editors of Time and Life, many of them old friends. He was welcomed by communications people for his own highly specialized knowledge. A graduate of Sun Yat-sen University in Moscow, he knows Communism from the personal experience of 12 years spent in Russia. Today he is an acknowledged expert on mainland affairs and commands guerrillas there.

 

 

 

Warmly greeted everywhere he went, Minister Chiang responded with friendship and courtesy. He was accessible to the press and tried to give them the human side of his own and China's story. In San Francisco, for example, he repeated the reunion scene with his daughter Amy (bottom) four times. The photo was used throughout America.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overseas Chinese leaders and people were pleased with the democratic responses of Chiang Ching-kuo. At countless banquets given in his honor, he took the pleasure of going to the kitchen to drink a toast to the cooks and waiters. At a dinner in San Francisco's famed Chinatown, he asked one of the cooks when the counterattack against the mainland should be launched. "Better soon", the cook responded. Also in the Bay City, he visited the Dr. Sun Yat-sen statue in St. Mary's Park (top) and cordially shook hands with well-wishers and passers-by. Minister Chiang reported that he found U.S. overseas Chinese strongly in favor of undertaking mainland return at the earliest possible moment. He described Chinese Americans as loyal to their adopted country but also devoted to a free China.

 

 

 

 

At a press conference at Twin Oaks in Washington (top), Minister Chiang said that the return of the government of the Republic of China to the mainland will assure freedom for the Chinese people and peace for Asia. Second from right is James Shen, director of the Government Information Office, who accompanied Chiang Ching-kuo throughout the U.S. trip. The Defense Minister also told the American press about stepped-up commando and guerrilla activities on the mainland. After his return to Taipei, General Chiang said that he found Americans much better informed about the Communist threat in Asia than they were on the occasion of his visit to the United States two years ago. In his advocacy of counterattack, he stressed that the fighting would be done by forces of free China only.