The President analyzed Peiping's nuclear undertakings in considerable detail. He said that mainland research does not represent scientific progress: "It only further attests to Mao Tse-tung's brute crimes of oppressing the mainland people and impoverishing them to the very limit. Mao's brutism, heartlessly intended for the destruction of mankind and diametrically opposed to the interest of science, is in absolute contravention of the peace-loving nature of the Chinese people."
He went on to compare "the Chinese Communists' mad rush to explode atomic devices" with Nazi efforts to develop destructive V2 rockets in the closing days of World War II.
The President said: "The Nazis dumped on that project all the time, resources, and manpower they could ill spare only to find themselves definitively beaten within half a year." In the same way, he said, the Chinese Communists are resorting to "spendthrift extravagance" and using up all available resources in the attempt to achieve capability for nuclear annihilation."
This means, President Chiang continued, that the people of the mainland can be saved from extinction only if "the freedom-loving youths at home and abroad make full use of available time, and quickly break through the Communist coastal defenses in a counterattack, and ... the mainland youths rise in revolt in the enemy's rear before the opportunity for it slips away."
The nation's leader also rang the alarm bell for the free nations, urging them to "forsake their attitude of appeasement and vacillation, and come forth in support of our task of mainland recovery and our effort to bring to an end the Communist nuclear threat."
Further free world procrastination, he said, will permit Mao Tse-tung to come into possession of "nuclear weaponry capable of destroying mankind." Mao will use the power, he added, to expand the territory under his usurpation and to bring civilization itself "to a sudden end."
President Chiang said the Chinese Communist military monstrosity has feet of clay.
"Some people are bewildered," he said, "by the Chinese Communist atomic test explosion. Others are prejudiced or confused, because they have been deluded by the idea that the Chinese Communists have been able to control so vast a population, rule over so tremendously extensive a land mass, and to survive for so many years."
What they do not see, he continued, is that the Chinese Reds are bankrupt as a result of their ruthless exploitation and other misdeeds. "The bigger the population ... the greater the famine," the wider the exploitation, the more bitter the hatred. "No matter how cruel its repression, the regime will not be able to suppress the people's uproar of demands for freedom, livelihood, and democratic rights."
"As of this moment," President Chiang said, "the regime has reached a crisis in which every place is its graveyard and everyone of its citizens is its enemy. With their bloated defense system suffering from inward decay, the Chinese Communists will not be able to resist our coordinated attacks from within and without; for their defenses are full of cracks, and their strength is thinning out. By comparison, we have the advantage of concentration and they have the weakness of dispersion."
The chief executive called on the nation's youth, whom he praised as constituting the vanguard of the National Revolution, "to fight for freedom and survival." He said this is the time "for them to make the decision to sacrifice their happiness, their very lives, in order to lay down a permanent foundation for the nation and the people, and to hand down their names to be honored by posterity."
In salute to the leader and the nation, more than 10,000 students massed in the plaza in front of the Presidential Building, then marched through the streets of downtown Taipei.
In another message, President Chiang expressed his deep concern for the people of the mainland in their sufferings under Communist tyranny and in their ceaseless efforts to throw off the Red yoke.
He addressed himself to the 15th annual convocation of the Free China Relief Association, and asked that assistance to mainland freedom fighters be increased to the maximum compatible with the capability for delivery. He also suggested increased aid to those who escape from the Communists, and called for international assistance to Chinese intellectuals who are scattered around the world after their flights from mainland oppression.
President Chiang paid his tribute to classical Chinese values in an address prepared for the fifth annual meeting of the Academic Society for Confucianism and Mencianism.
He said that ancient philosophies must be readjusted in the light of modern scientific thinking and methods, but also noted that "in a democratic society, the people must observe a common ethic based on law and the moral code." Law, he added, implies a spirit of abiding by its rules, and this can stem only from moral teachings.
An interview with the United Press International gave the President opportunity to range through some of the most crucial and pressing world issues of the times.
He said that the U.S. policy of containment is insufficient to cope with the threat of the Chinese Communists, and expressed conviction that the American government can find a way to destroy the Peiping regime without a direct, head-on clash.
President Chiang suggested these steps:
-U.S. support of the free Asian nations in their establishment of a NATO-like alliance.
—Continued assistance for Asian countries that cannot yet stand on their own feet militarily; Vietnam would be included.
—Letting other states of the region settle their own domestic problems' in their own way. These countries "should have their hands unshackled so that they can use their own strength to launch a crusade against a rebel regime in their own country. In so doing, they will be destroying the sanctuary of the Chinese Communists' aggression against the free world. The United States need not send a single soldier to fight on the Chinese mainland. Thus other countries would be denied any ground to intervene in China's domestic affairs."
Escalation of the U.S. and South Vietnamese air attacks on the Communists in North Vietnam brought a strong feeling that the National Government's fight with the Chinese Reds is rapidly coming down to the day of decision. The clash between Peiping MIGs based on Hainan island and American planes provided an exclamation point to this conclusion.
Many points are involved. These are some of them:
* The Republic of China's armed forces are in a state of readiness to move at a moment's notice. As far as free China is concerned, all systems are green. Defenses also are tight, prepared for any eventuality. Hawk ground-to-air missiles have been test-fired over the Taiwan Straits for the first time. Nike-Hercules missiles, which have been operational since 1961, also have been fired. The series of tests included four exercises, all pronounced highly successful.
* Troops are awaiting any call of the Republic of Vietnam for assistance in the ground fighting against the Viet Cong. The ROC already has an armed forces psychological warfare team in the embattled Southeast Asian country. Maj. Gen. Huynh Van Cao; the new chief of staff of the Vietnamese Army, visiting Taiwan, said his government would appreciate the dispatch of additional free Chinese military personnel. However, no formal request has yet been received.
* Legislative Yuan member Hsieh Jen-chao called for the sending of ROC troops to Southeast Asia in the event Chinese Communist "volunteers” cross the border into North Vietnam.
* Vice Admiral William E. Gentner Jr. commander of the U.S. Taiwan Defense Command, said the Republic of China military establishment is adequately prepared to meet—in cooperation with the Pacific forces of the United States—any challenge that the Chinese Communists are likely to lay down in the Taiwan Straits.
* U.S. Senator Thomas J. Dodd of Connecticut, visiting Taiwan for four days, said that President Lyndon Johnson's "unconditional negotiations" speech does not signal "any softening of American policy" toward the: Chinese Communists or aggression in Southeast Asia. He said the United States has promised to help defend the independence of South Vietnam and that the pledge will be kept.
* Perhaps most important of all, Henry Cabot Lodge, the former ambassador to South Vietnam and President Johnson's special envoy, stopped off in Taipei to confer with President Chiang in the course of a lightning trip that also took him to Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Australia, and New Zealand. Obviously, former Senator Lodge was sounding out free Asian opinion on the stronger response to Vietnamese Communist aggression—and quite possibly to what should be done about that original source and instigator of evil, the Peiping regime of the Chinese Communists.
President Johnson will attach great importance to the Lodge report. Almost surely, the recommendations of Presidents Chiang Kai-shek, Park Chung Hee of Korea and Diosdado Macapagal of the Philippines will be virtually identical. Australia also is known to favor hitting the Communists harder, and New Zealand may not be far behind: Japan remains the question mark—but even there the conservative, controlling leadership is well aware that if the Reds grow any stronger, the Japanese themselves will be directly threatened.
China, while dearly and unrestrainedly applauding the United States for the firmer action against Communism in Vietnam, still emphasized that to destroy Hanoi's capacity for mischief while leaving Peiping untouched would be like arresting the 'accomplice while allowing the principal to escape.
Economic good news continued to pile up for Taiwan.
Retired servicemen began buying 150 acres of farm land reclaimed from the sea. The project was carried out by the Vocational Assistance Commission for Retired Servicemen along the island's west coast in a program that began eight years ago.
The first dividends from this VACRS undertaking went to the nation's former fighting men in 1961. Larger programs are now under study. The potential of recovery from the ocean runs into tens of thousands of acres.
This prospect helped to relieve concern that food production will not be adequate to take care of Taiwan's fast-growing population. Director Li Lien-chun of the Provincial Food Bureau told the Legislative Yuan that rice production in 1974 will be 2,860,000 metric tons, leaving a surplus of 350,000 tons for export.
Rice harvest in 1964 was 2,246,639 tons, and the forecast for 1965 is 2,320,000.
The favorable agricultural prospect plus the industrial boom made it possible for Minister of Economic Affairs K.T. Li to predict annual economic growth of 7 per cent during the next four years.
This will mean a gross national product of more than US$3.5 billion when the current four-year plan ends in 1968. The gain will be close to a billion U.S. dollars.
Although the standard of living will continue to increase, private spending will decrease from 67.6 per cent to 64.5 per cent of the GNP, thus making possible additional expenditures on defense. Government spending also will be increased for retirement benefits, social welfare, scholarships, and a pay raise for civil servants.
Investment will be maintained at a rate of 12 per cent annually. By 1968, Taiwan will be employing nearly 5 million persons, Li said, with the annual increase totaling 3.3 per cent.
The only unfavorable note in the minister's report was prediction of a trade deficit of US$15 million by 1968. He attributed this to increased imports of machinery, equipment, and raw materials. However, the deficit will not be of important economic concern. It will be more than covered by foreign investments, loans, and sale of U.S. farm surpluses.
Although U.S. assistance is formally phasing out as of June 30, there were increasing indications that Washington has no intention of looking the other way while the Republic of China struggles to keep its economic head above water.
One encouraging sign was the visit of an official U.S. trade and investment mission. Members of the six-man team were unanimous in their agreement that trade between the United States and free China will continue to grow in the years just ahead.
America is already Taiwan’s second largest trading partner, just behind Japan.
Important other benefits will be received in the aftermath of the U.S. aid program.
An estimated US$178 million worth of materials and services, remain to be delivered in 1965, 1966, and 1967. About US$95 million of this is scheduled for this year - almost double the US$47 ,672,000 worth of aid arrivals in fiscal 1964.
Although power projects constitute the big unfinished items, nearly US$6 million is available as import loan funds in 1965. Surplus foods to be sold for local currency will total US$36 million.
Also available as development funds will be NT$10 billion (US$250 million) during the next five years. This is local money generated by U.S. aid programs of the last decade and a half.
China and the United States have signed an agreement which will bring the fund into official existence on July 1, the day after old style American aid ends. Sources of the NT dollars are repayment of loans for U.S. equipment and supplies and the proceeds from sale of U.S. surplus agricultural products.
Actually, this is a revolving fund that can be perpetuated beyond the five years. Funds loaned out will be repaid—with interest—and the capital thus will be increased.
The Republic of China closed down—with regret—its Commissioner's Office in Macao.
The government was polite about it—understandably, because diplomatic relations with Portugal continued without impairment. Still, the closure hurt—because it was an obvious case of Chinese Communist pressure exerted against an antagonist that dared not resist.
Macao is less than six miles square, but important out of all proportion to its size. Annually, thousands of freedom-seekers make their way out of the mainland via Macao.
The Commissioner's Office had helped them, and also had carried out important ·passport and visa work. This nearby flavor of freedom finally became too much for the Communists, who could crush Macao in a few hours. So Peiping had its aggressive way.
Free China could only hope-and said so-that the rights of the more than 200,000 Chinese inhabitants of Macao will be protected against the pressures and the wiles of the Reds.
Relations with Africa had both a dark and bright side. The bad was the severance of diplomatic ties with Dahomey, which bad permitted' establishment of a Peiping "embassy." A farm demonstration team already had finished a highly successful tour there.
On the good side was the prospective dispatch of three more farm teams to Africa, raising the total from 11 to 14. The agricultural technicians were to be sent to Togo, the Leopoldville Congo, and Malagasy. Teams arc already working in Liberia, Libya, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Rwanda, Senegal, Niger, Sierra Leone, Cameroun, Upper Volta, and Chad.
Liberia sent its Vice President, William Richard Tolbert Jr., to the Republic of China for a week's visit in late April.
On his return from a 35-day tour of several African countries, Vice Foreign Minister H. K. Yang said political tides of the continent have now turned in favor of the free world. He cited the four-nation conference of Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Niger, and Upper Volta as proving that Africans have awakened to the aggressive danger of Communism.