at Seventy, by Chiang Kai-shek
Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, New York 1957
392 PP. U.S. $5
The publication in Junn of President Chiang Kai-shek's Soviet Russia in China was a memorable event. As a study of Communist aims and methods, the book is a major contribution to the literature of the anti Communist movement, on which the future welfare of the Free World will to a considerable extent depend. It enshrines the wisdom born of the experience of an outstanding expert on the subject of Communist intrigues and. strategy.
What influence will this new book have upon the Free World? As the Work was published only a little while ago, it is too soon yet to say what it will do. But of one thing we are certain. It is sure to produce an important effect upon the anti-Communist forces at work in the Free World. The fact is, in the language of business, it is a book that will sell itself. That is to say, even without advertising and publicity, it will in course of time win the wide attention and numerous converts that are its due. The reason is because it contains a vital truth; because it contains a message, and lessons, that our age, faced with the destructive forces of Communist aggressions and intrigues, needs for its well-being. With the world-wide publicity and acclaim it has received, the attention of the Free World and of its enemies as well is already focused on it. It is, therefore, sure to have its effects felt, and soon.
The author's knowledge and experience of the Communists are first-hand and intimate. He has been fighting them ever since 1924. Their master plan, which had hitherto worked so well because it was tailored to fit the general weakness of the Free World, cans for (1) coexistence and subversion, (together with peace talks, non-aggression pacts, unit ed front, etc.), before they are ready to conquer and kill, and (2) aggression, conquest and oppression (together with purges and massacres), when they are ready and see the opportunity. As the indolence and sentimentalism of the Free World combine to produce an unholy yearning for coexistence and neutralism, the Communists have never had any real difficulty in winning their objective of peace-talks and coexistence, whenever they are in trouble and need a short, or long, respite to regroup their forces for a subsequent attack. It is a plan that had served the Communists well in the past and enabled them to seize power on the Chinese mainland and elsewhere.
Against such a sinister plan, the most effective weapon is truth—truth about the Communist aim, an unalterable and immutable aim to control and enslave the whole world; truth about the call for coexistence being a siren song to lull the Free World into sleep and prepare it for the Communist aggressions and coups to follow when the time is ripe; truth about the crimes and atrocities genocide, slave labor, etc.—the Communists have perpetrated in the name of socialism and democracy. It is true the Free World has always been slow in understanding and absorbing truth, but eventually truth will prevail and make the world free. Soviet Russia in China is all important, because it tells, effectively, this truth.
What should the Free World do about the whining Communist demands to open peace talks, to disarm and coexist, and to trade? The democratic countries probably will be unwilling to do anything drastic to stop the Communists and their fellow travellers from making such mendacious demands. But obviously there is need for everyone in the Free World to be on guard against Communist snares and booby traps in the form of invitations to negotiate and trade, or of offers of aid and gifts. In his book President Chiang has described graphically how Communist snares and booby traps operate, and readers will have no difficulty in deciding what to do and, more important, what not to do.
On one important point, a strong recommendation is made in the book. The Free World, under the leadership of the United States, must give active support to the Liberation Movement of the enslaved peoples behind the Iron Curtain, particularly in mainland China. In their attempt to reach the American citadel and western Europe, the Communists are using the Chinese mainland as their advance base and penetrating into the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Therefore the best way to prevent a third World War and free the world of the Communist menace that threatens to enslave all humanity is to give effective support to the efforts of the Chinese people to overthrow their Communist oppressors in Peiping. In doing this, the Free World will be playing an active role in the fight against the new- colonialism of Soviet Russia and in the liberation of enslaved peoples behind the Iron Curtain. The Far East is the best theater of operations to strike at the Communist octopus, because this is, where Soviet Russian troops will not intervene, and where the Communist octopus can be emasculated and later destroyed without provoking a world war.
To indolent and neutralist-minded readers of western Europe and American, this very strong and unpalatable medicine indeed. But the recommendation is a sound one; the only one workable under present circumstances, and the book in which it is made is an important contribution to the cause of liberation.
As a result of the peace offensives unleashed recently by Moscow and Peiping, the tide of Communist style coexistence is running dangerously strong, Well-meaning but "color blind" men are getting more articulate in their desire for negotiation and coexistence with Communist countries including the Chinese mainland. These people with a coexistence mentality have simply refused to face the question of what will happen to the vast area comprising Korea land Japan in the north, and Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaya, etc. in the south. Likewise they have ignored the question of the large number of over seas Chinese in Southeast Asia and America, if the puppet regime in Peiping is admitted into the United Nations. They just agitate for appeasement and coexistence. In the midst of all this, the publication of President Chiang's work is serving an all important purpose-giving a much needed warning about the dangers ahead and advice on how to eliminate the source of these dangers.
The Communist menace affects the Free World ·as well as the enslaved peoples behind the Iron Curtain. It is a continuing menace and malady which is both chronic and acute. It is a cancerous disease that kills its victims whenever the chance comes. In dealing with it, the Free World must seek an early, effective and complete cure. The Free World must brook no delay, no relaxation, no deviation. The Free World must seize every opportunity to strike at the root of the Communist octopus, and do everything possible to exterminate it.
Y. Z. CHANG