At the invitation of President Chiang Kai-shek, President Dwight D. Eisenhower visited the Republic of China from June 18 to June 19, 1960. This historic journey of the President of the United States of America and the warmth and enthusiasm with which he was received by the Chinese people demonstrated anew the strong bonds of friendship between the two countries.
Both President Chiang and President Eisenhower welcomed the opportunity afforded them by this visit for an intimate exchange of views on various matters of common interest and concern, calling to mind that the two countries have always stood closely together as staunch allies in war as well as in peace. The talks between the two Chiefs of State were held in an atmosphere of utmost cordiality.
In the course of their discussions, the two Presidents reaffirmed the dedication of the two Governments to an untiring quest for peace with freedom and justice. They recognize that peace and security are indivisible and that justice among nations demands the freedom and dignity of all men in all lands.
Taking note of the continuing threat of Communist aggression against the free world in general and the Far Eastern free countries in particular, the two Presidents expressed full agreement on the vital necessity of achieving closer unity and strength among all free nations.
They pledged once again that both their Governments would continue to stand solidly behind the Sino-U.S. Mutual Defense Treaty in meeting the challenge posed by the Chinese Communists in this area. They deplored the outrageous and barbaric practice of the Chinese Communists in shelling and ruthlessly killing Chinese people on alternate days and noted that this practice emphasized the necessity for continued vigilance and firmness in the face of violence.
Discussions were also held on the importance of decelerating the economic expansion of the Republic of China in order to enhance the prosperity and well-being of its people. President Chiang explained the steps which his Government is taking to assure the early accomplishment of his goal. He expressed the appreciation of his Government and people for the valuable assistance which the United States of America has rendered to the Republic of China. President Eisenhower expressed the admiration of the American people for the progress achieved by the Republic of China in various field in recent years and gave assurance of continuing United States assistance.
Finally, the two Presidents voiced their common determination that the two Governments should continue to dedicate themselves to the principles of the United Nations and devote their unremitting efforts to the intensifying of their cooperation and to the further strengthening of the traditional friendship between the Chinese and American peoples.
Arrival Statements
President Chiang's Remarks of Welcome
Your Excellency's arrival in our country is a great historic event in the annals of Sino-American relations. The Government and people of the Republic of China are filled with joy, and on their behalf, I wish to extend to you our warmest welcome.
The traditional friendship between our two peoples has been of a long standing. We share the same lofty ideals, and the aims of our common endeavors in pursuit of peace in freedom and justice are completely identical. Both in peace and in war, our two nations have been cooperating closely as two faithful allies engaged in a common struggle. Today with half of mankind enslaved and the Free World, especially the free nations in the Far East, under the constant threat of Communist aggression, it behooves our two governments to cooperate even more closely than ever before, in order to uphold freedom and justice, to preserve human dignity, and to insure peace and security in this area of the Free World.
Your Excellency's visit to our country is a powerful demonstration of the lasting friendship between the Republic of China and the United States of America. I am confident that the friendly cooperation between our two countries will be further strengthened as a result of your visit. In extending to you our warmest welcome, may I avail myself of this opportunity to convey to Your Excellency my deep personal respects, and also to wish Your Excellency a very happy sojourn in our country.
President Eisenhower's Arrival Statement
First, Mr. President, I must thank you for your cordial words of welcome. I am indeed gratified that you saw fit to acknowledge the significance of this visit as one that attempts to bring even closer together our two countries.
For a long time I have hoped that I might be able to visit Taiwan. Therefore, I was delighted when I found I could accept your President's gracious invitation to come here.
I look forward to fruitful conversations with him as well as to the opportunity to salute the Chinese people on the rapid progress made on this island.
Our friendship, tested in war and in peace, is a real source of strength in our development of Free World security.
The ideals that we share: Our common commitment to self-government in our respective countries; our aspiration for a world of freedom, justice and peace and friendship under the rule of law; all these demand of us—as they do of all the Free World—increased vigilance and closer cooperation in the face of the threats posed by Communist Imperialism.
Mr. President, to your people I bring the personal assurance of America's steadfast solidarity with you and your Government in the defense of these ideals and in the pursuit of our common aspirations.
Thank you very much.
Mass Rally Addresses
President Chiang's Introduction
This is indeed an occasion of unusual pleasure, for we are gathered here to-day to extend a warm welcome to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Chief of State of our great ally, the United States of America.
During all these years, President Eisenhower has made steadfast efforts in search of world peace in freedom and justice. Particularly great have been his contributions toward the promotion of the friendship and cooperation between China and America as two allies.
President Eisenhower is not only a great statesman and a great soldier, but also a great leader of the free world. To the Republic of China he is a true friend through thick and thin. Needless to say, he has long been the object of our profound admiration. His coming to visit us today, therefore, is a most memorable event in the history of Sino-American relations. It carries a special significance in strengthening Sino-American cooperation in the common fight against the aggression of the International Communists. Our rally here today to give President Eisenhower our warmest welcome is in itself a clear demonstration of the lasting ties of friendship and cooperation which bind our two peoples together.
May I now call upon the great leader of the free world and the Chief of State of our ally to speak to us.
President Eisenhower's Address
I address this gathering today fully aware of the honor you have' bestowed on my Country and myself in inviting me to speak here. I bring to your Nation greetings from the American people.
We Americans are in a very real sense your close neighbors: We look out with you upon the same ocean— the Pacific. This largest of oceans has been narrowed by the marvels of modern communication and transportation. No longer is it a formidable barrier separating America from the Nations of the Far East.
We in America have accepted this tremendously important fact of International life, and recognize its implications for the future of our country. Therefore, I come to you, as to the other countries of the Pacific which I am privileged to visit, as a friend and neighbor deeply concerned with your and our common interests.
This concern has shaped my country's policies toward the nations of the Pacific. The realization that America's security and welfare are intimately bound up with their security and welfare has led us to foster the concept of collective defense; and to contribute money, materials and technical assistance to promote their economic stability and development.
But though the United States provides assistance to the nations of the Pacific region, many of them recently emerged from Colonial status, we have not sougnt to impose upon them our own way of life or system of government. We respect their sovereignty as we do our own.
To do otherwise would be a betrayal of America's own traditions. Our purpose is to help protect the right of our neighbors of the Pacific to develop in accordance with their own National aspirations and traditions.
In this era of mass destruction weapons, the increasing intimacy in which the peoples of the world live makes resort to war, even by the smallest of them, dangerous to the whole community of nations.
I come to you representing a Country determined, despite all setbacks to press on in search of effective means to outlaw war and to promote the rule of law among nations.
History has repeatedly shown that this high purpose is not served by yielding to threats or by weakening defenses against potential aggressors. Indeed such weakness would increase the danger of war.
You may be assured that our continuing search for peaceful solutions to outstanding international problems does not reflect the slightest lessening of our determination to stand with you, and with all our free neighbors of the Pacific, against any aggression.
The United States does not recognize the warlike and tyrannical Communist regime in Peiping to speak for all the Chinese people. In the United Nations we support the Republic of China, a founding member, as the only rightful representative of China in that organization.
The American people deeply admire your courage in striving so well to keep the cause of liberty alive here in Taiwan in the face of the menacing power of Communist Imperialism. Your accomplishments provide inspiration to us all.
The search for lasting peace comprehends much more than the erection of sure defenses. Perhaps nothing offers greater hope to a war weary world than the new opportunities for a better life which have been opened up in the past few decades by the magnificent achievements of science and technology. If the peoples of the world can not only master the forces of nature but can find also the way to use them for peaceful ends, we are on the threshold of a new era.
One of the great peaceful battles for a better life which the Republic of China is now in the midst of fighting here on Taiwan - is on the front of economic progress. For you, the past has been full of hardships. But for the people of this island each difficulty was a challenge to be mastered.
During years of progress, freedom has not been a free ingredient, like air or water. Indeed, freedom has been the costliest component of your daily lives. Even in sheer economic terms you have devoted a larger share of your incomes to keeping your independence than have most other peoples on the globe. To do this you have had to adopt progressive measures.
A great economic accomplishment of the past ten years was your program of land reform. Due to its fair and democratic conception and execution it has become a model for similar reforms in other lands. It dealt successfully with one of the fundamental problems the Chinese people have faced throughout history. Moreover, you achieved much more than a fair and equitable adjustment—you produced both social dynamism and economic growth.
That reform, founded on Sun Yat-sen's three peoples principles and executed with our regard for law and for private property, stands in sharp contrast to the brutal regimentation of your countrymen on the mainland. There they are often herded into the soul-destroying labor brigades of the Commune System. But Free China knows that a system in which the farmer owns the land he tills gives him the incentive to adopt advanced fertilization, irrigation and other farming techniques.
We are proud that we have been of some help technically, in carrying through your agricultural reform program. We too nave learned much from our association in the Chinese-American joint commission on rural reconstruction. We have been able to use this experience to good advantage in helping other countries. In the industrial field your friends in the United States and all over the world have watched with satisfaction your growing productivity and diversification. You have demonstrated, under adverse conditions, the moral and physical strength, the imagination and the perseverance to achieve this near miracle. Now I learn that, not satisfied with the impressive rate of progress already attained, you are entering upon a new program for further speeding up your economic growth.
In today's world, where many new nations of Asia and Africa are seeking a path of economic development to satisfy the growing expectations of their people, Free China provides a shining example. Thanks in large measure to the vigor and talents of its population and its leaders, it has advanced to the threshold of the kind of self-sustaining economic growth that has brought other free nations to wealth and power.
Free China thus has an opportunity, which is at the same time a responsibility, to demonstrate to less developed nations the way to economic growth in freedom. Confronted with the harsh example of the Communist way on the Mainland, you here are in position to show how a nation can achieve material strength and advance the well-being of its people without sacrificing its most valued traditions.
Your success in this field can sustain and guarantee your secure standing in the community of nations. And it will become, for your own fellow countrymen on the mainland, an ever more insistent refutation of the false Communist thesis that modern economic development can be purchased only at the price of freedom.
We in the United States have studied your plans for social and economic changes and do not underestimate the difficulties you will have to endure during a period of transition. Economic growth, especially accelerated growth, constantly calls for recurring revolutions in thinking, in the way we do things, indeed in every phase of our lives.
As you know, we intend to join hands with you in this great enterprise. By doing so we shall not lighten your load because you have already pledged yourselves to maximum effort, but our partnership should demonstrate how rapid progress can be achieved by the method, of free peoples freely joined in friendship for mutual benefit.
As representatives of the great and numerous Chinese nation, heirs to one of the world's most ancient and honored cultures, you the people of Free China can play a unique role in the future of mankind. By grasping the opportunities for the improvement of human welfare now made possible by the advancement of science and technology, you can blaze a trail of progress here on Taiwan that may ultimately shape the destiny of all your fellow countrymen, of nearly one-quarter of the human race. This is indeed a challenge of gigantic proportions.
In meeting that challenge, the United States all the free world - wishes you great success.
My friends, this morning I encountered this unforgettable experience. I met thousands of you people along the road from the airport and everywhere I encountered only friendliness in greetings and faces lighted up with smiles. To each of you who lined that route, to each of you who today came out to do me the courtesy of listening to what I had to say, I give you my grateful thanks on behalf of my party, myself-indeed for the American people, whose concern for every one of you is deep and lasting. So from your President to the humblest citizen of the land, I say thank you very much and God be with you.
At the State Banquet
President Chiang's Speech:
Your Excellency has come a long way to visit our country. This is an event of great historic significance, and has a great bearing on the promotion of Sino-American friendly relationship and the strengthening of our cooperation in our common struggle against international Communist aggression. For this reason, the government and people of the Republic of China feel greatly exhilarated over your presence in our midst.
I recall with pleasure our first meeting at the Cairo Conference in 1943 and our second meeting in Nanking in 1946 when you visited China in your capacity as Chief of Staff of the United States Army. Today, 14 years afterward, I again have the pleasure of receiving you and renewing with you our old friendship, this time on this bastion of our national recovery. On behalf of the government and people of the Republic of China I wish to extend to Your Excellency our warmest welcome.
Our two peoples have long cherished the same ideals. We both treasure freedom, love peace and uphold justice. The fundamental principles on which our two nations are based are virtually identical. The Three People's Principles (namely, nationalism, democracy and social well-being) advocated by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, father of the Republic of China, are conceived in the same spirit as Abraham Lincoln's noble postulates of a government "of the people, by the people and for the people." Because of this complete identity of ideals and principles, our two countries have been able to stand fast on moral grounds and to fight together for freedom and justice in every world crisis.
Immediately before and after the founding of our Republic, China's very existence as an independent country was imperiled because of encroachments by various foreign powers. The United States, adhering to her just and noble principles and policy, not only demanded or seized no Chinese territory as some of the other powers did, but actually spoke up in China's behalf at various international gatherings. The Nine-Power Pact signed in 1922 and the principle of non-recognition proclaimed in 1932 in regard to the puppet Manchukuo regime were both eloquent proofs of the United States moral support for China. After the establishment of the National Government in Nanking, the United States was the first country to relinquish her special privileges in China pertaining to customs tariff. During World War II, the United States again took the lead in abrogating the unequal treaties with China. In China's eight-year war of resistance against the aggression of the Japanese warlords, the United States rendered both moral and material support to China in the early stage and later fought shoulder to shoulder with China to achieve common victory. After the Chinese Communists seized the mainland and set up a puppet regime there under the aegis of Soviet Russia, the United States government has consistently maintained a just stand by denouncing the Peiping regime. On the one hand, it has conscientiously upheld the position of the Republic of China in the world community, and on the other hand it has barred the Chinese Communist regime from gaining admittance into the United Nations. In the meantime, it has steadily supplied the Republic of China with military, economic and technical assistance to help her build up here on Taiwan a base for national recovery so as to keep alive the hopes of deliverance on the part of the millions of people enslaved on the Chinese mainland.
Since the establishment of its Communist empire, Soviet Russia has picked the Republic of China as the primary target of its aggression in Asia. Beginning from 1925, China has been bearing the brunt of Communist onslaughts. For more than three decades, China had to fight alone. China was faced with a most serious crisis in the early '50: when Your Excellency assumed the presidency. It was under your wise leadership that the United States government concluded a Mutual Defense Treaty with the Republic of China, and obtained Congressional authorization to employ the armed forces of the United States to protect Taiwan and Penghu and related positions and territories of this area against armed attacks in order to insure the Free World's security in the Western Pacific. In the autumn of 1958, when the Chinese Communists launched a large-scale artillery bombardment against Kinmen and used aircraft and naval vessels to cut off supplies from reaching our garrison forces there, it became instantly clear that this was a part of an attempt not only to seize this shield of the Taiwan Straits but also to overcome our bastion on Taiwan on which the security of the Western Pacific depends. Our garrison forces immediately rose to the challenge and fought back, and with the effective logistic support of our American ally, we won a brilliant victory. This not has only secured the offshore islands, but has also caused the Chinese Communists' military venture to end in a disastrous defeat. This serious test, to which cooperation between our two countries under the Mutual Defense Treaty had been subjected, has fully demonstrated its effectiveness and its special value.
Your Excellency, relations between our two countries in the 116 years since our first formal diplomatic contact have been a long record of genuine friendship which has been as great as it has been deep. Of this record our two nations can feel justifiably proud.
Today the world is in the grip of tension and uneasiness. This is the result of the conspiracy between the Soviet Russian imperialists and their puppet the Chinese Communists. They are out deliberately to undermine peace and to upset order, in an attempt to conquer the whole world and to enslave all mankind. This has increased the responsibility of the United States to lead the Free World in resisting this evil force of Communism. In this connection, I would like to stress that right now the Communist bloc is concentrating its aggression in Asia; where the Chinese Communists are the principal perpetrator. Since the United States and the Republic of China have the joint responsibility as allies to resist aggression and secure peace in this area, solidarity and cooperation between our two countries have become a matter of greater importance than ever before. Your Excellency has come to visit us at a time of great challenges and perils. In the eyes of the Chinese people, civilians and military personnel alike, your presence in our midst as a great ally and friend to share with us whatever difficulties may lie ahead of us, carries with it an unusually great significance. We shall forever remember the precious friendship you have brought us in this visit.
Your Excellency, when you began your presidency seven years ago you advocated the policy of liberation for people behind the Iron Curtain. This policy has been a cause of encouragement to all freedom-lovers the world over and particularly to the 800 million people enslaved in the Communist-controlled countries and areas. We believe that a real world peace must be based upon freedom and justice, but freedom and justice can be secured only by the early removal of the Iron Curtain. The present state of slavery can never be permitted to perpetuate itself. I am glad to inform Your Excellency that thanks to your great policy, we have succeeded in building here on Taiwan a base for the eventual liberation of our people on the mainland. One day when all our compatriots at present under Communist yoke are free again, they will never forget what your great policy has meant to them and to entire mankind. The Republic of China and the United States have been faithful friends in need in the past and they are staunch allies today. Henceforth we should further strengthen our cooperation and strive harder for the attainment of this noble goal.
Your Excellency's visit will not only promote the traditional friendship and close cooperation between our two countries, but will also further inspire the enslaved people on the Chinese mainland in their hope to regain freedom, and further consolidate the will and resolution of all the peoples in Asia to resist Communist aggression. The significance cannot be over-estimated. On behalf of the government of the Republic of China and all the Chinese people both here, over on the mainland, and away overseas, I wish to avail myself of this opportunity to express my most sincere respect to Your Excellency and to the people of the United States.
May I and Madame Chiang ask you, Ladies and Gentlemen, to join us in a toast to:
The continued good health of His Excellency President Eisenhower,
The well-being and prosperity of the United States of America, and
The lasting friendship between the Chinese and the American peoples!
Toast by President Eisenhower
Mr. President, I am deeply grateful for your recounting the record - the long record - of Sino-American cooperation through the years. I think we must never forget that effective, successful cooperation demands mutual understanding. Where cooperation has been successful in the past it is unquestionably because there was at that moment real understanding.
And where it has been less successful, it is because one or the other has not understood the problem as did the other. I think if we have one problem always before us, it is to make certain that this understanding, of ourselves and of the other and of our mutual problems, is so clear, so sharp, that there can be no mistake in judgment made that can have any effect other than true cooperation in pursuit of the ideals we both believe in.
And now, with your permission, sir, I should like to respond more specifically to your most gracious remarks. Additionally, of course, I am grateful for the wonderful reception I received from the Chinese people today.
And I am particularly happy to renew my personal acquaintance and friendship with President Chiang, whom I first met in Cairo in 1943. Lasting associations between nations are founded, not in personal relationships, but in community of interest, mutual respect, shared ideals and aspirations, and common purpose. But international relations, like historical events, cannot be divorced from the persons who play a part in them.
For a third of a century, President Chiang has played a decisive role in the shaping of relations between our two countries. He first won America's admiration and respect as a brilliant young revolutionary leader who unified China in a series of masterly campaigns. He set it on the road to becoming a modern democratic nation. He further deepened our respect and earned our gratitude by his indomitable leadership of our great Far Eastern ally in the second World War.
As the President has noted, this is my second visit to the government of the Republic of China. In 1946, when I visited China, as Chief of Staff of the Army, President Chiang had just led his embattled people to victory in the face of tremendous odds. He was then acutely conscious that China faced a new threat, one as yet scarcely recognized in the rest of the world.
President Chiang, with undiminished courage and vigor, still leads China in resistance to the menace he saw so clearly fourteen years ago. He stands now as our partner in a great alliance of free peoples, who have come to share his own appreciation of the need for unity against the global threat of Communist imperialism.
Our solidarity with the Republic of China has been proclaimed in many forms in our close political, economic and cultural relations, in our mutual defense treaty, in our common opposition to Communist aggression, in the joint communique during the last visit of the late Secretary Dulles to this island.
My presence here this evening will be taken, I hope, as another token of that solidarity. It is also an occasion for reaffirming our steadfast confidence, as Secretary Dulles said in 1957, "that international communism's rule of strict conformity is, in China as elsewhere, a passing and not a perpetual phase."
With these thoughts in mind I would like to propose a toast to President Chiang, and his charming wife, to our lasting friendship, to his success in his third term as President, and to the prosperity in freedom and peace of the Chinese people. Ladies and gentlemen, The President!
Farewell Statement
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen:
I leave the Republic of China with only one regret, that my visit has been so short. But I leave with a lasting impression of the warmth of your welcome, and renewed appreciation of the depth and permanence of the friendly ties that unite the Chinese and American peoples. I leave with an unforgettable impression of the dedication of the Chinese people to the cause of freedom.
My visit has been most instructive, as well as pleasant. My discussions with your distinguished Chief of State and members of the government have confirmed my belief that we have no more staunch friends anywhere than here in Taiwan.
I have learned at first hand of the strides you have made in developing the military and economic strength of Taiwan. I believe the plans that your leaders have developed will make of this island a living demonstration of the better life, political, economic, and social, that can be achieved by free men. Such a beacon of hope for your enslaved countrymen on (he mainland will, I believe, hasten the dawn of their own freedom.
Finally—and I would speak also to the Americans here today, for they too are engaged in this endeavor - let me assure you again of the full and unwavering support of the American government and people for the important part you are playing in our joint efforts toward a world of peace with justice, in freedom. I know the American people would join me in saying God be with you, and may He bring you that measure of success which your dedication deserves.