Fifteen years ago last month, five officers of the United States armed forces arrived on Taiwan to establish the Military Assistance Advisory Group for the Republic of China. Surveying the military situation of Republic of China forces that had been evacuated from the Chinese mainland, they quickly recognized the necessity of modernizing both weaponry and organization. The Chinese forces then were armed with a wide variety of light weapons of varied origin: German, American, Japanese, and Russian. Nor were they prepared to apply the advanced techniques and tactics required on the modern battlefield.
MAAG officers and men went right to work. By the end of 1951, there were 360 Americans at ROC military headquarters and in the field. In August of 1955, MAAG personnel totaled 2,347 to make the Taiwan advisory group the largest of those spread all around the free world. Since then, the numerical trend has been steadily downward as American advisers have worked themselves out of jobs. Today's total is about 800 from U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force.
Results have been all that the United States and the Republic of China expected. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and ranking American officers have attested to the high morale and combat readiness of the Chinese armed forces. Major General D.B. Johnson, the present chief of MAAG-China, said recently that Chinese forces "have been transformed into one of the largest and most combat effective military establishments in the Far East." He added: "Well-equipped with weapons of U.S. manufacture, they have achieved a tactical balance of combat forces, with an Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps which enable them to apply the measured degree of force necessary to accomplish their assigned mission."
General Johnson gave this assessment of the ROC armed services:
Army of approximately 400,000 organized into field armies, army corps, infantry divisions, armored divisions, armored cavalry regiments, an airborne infantry regiment, special forces groups, and air defense missile battalions. Basic ground combat forces of infantry, artillery, and armor are built around mobile infantry and armored divisions. These are supported by tactical air and sea power, as well as armored, artillery, airborne, and technical organizations to provide balance and battlefield flexibility. The air defense missile organizations have Nike-Hercules and Hawk missiles to intercept any Communist attempt to bomb Taiwan, which is only 100 miles from the closest enemy bases.
Winning Air Force
MAAG advisers of 1951 found the Chinese Air Force a competent, battle-experienced outfit. Its pilots had fought the Japanese and the Communists with distinguished success. But the CAF had only old P51s and B24s, obsolescent and rapidly aging toward air unworthiness. The first task was to get new planes. F86s became the workhorses of the Chinese Air Force. In the 1958 Battle of Kinmen, they shot down 32 Communist MIGs with the loss of only two Sabrejcts. Today's CAF, with strength of about 80,000, has F100 series aircraft, the F5 Freedom Fighters, transports, and helicopters: The F86s are rapidly being phased out for planes of approximately twice the speed. Since 1958, the Communists have not dared to challenge the CAF over the Straits of Taiwan.
Ships of the Chinese Navy did valiant service in the evacuation to Taiwan. How ever, as the MAAG program began, the defenders of the sea had scarcely a serviceable warship left. In the last ten years, the United States has provided more than 100 warships, patrol craft, and amphibious vessels. Today's Navy joins units of the U.S. 7th Fleet in patrolling the Taiwan Straits. Some of its approximately 60,000 officers and men have been tested and found not wanting in pitched battles during the last year. The Navy is well prepared for tasks of minelaying and anti-submarine warfare, and has increasing amphibious capability. It is one of the few free Asian naval forces with ships as large and powerful as destroyers. The Navy's land-fighting force, the Marines, has been intensively trained in amphibious warfare and is ready for any landing assignment, anywhere. Both Navy and Marines frequently participate in joint combat exercises with forces of the United States.
MAAG also has worked closely with the unique Combined Service Forces of the Republic of China, which provide administrative and logistical support to the three combat services. The Combined Service Forces receive and distribute material and equipment provided by the United States under the military assistance program, control the military production of industry and the ROC arsenals, supply topographic and administrative services, and direct medical, food, and pension activities for the dependents of armed forces personnel. Combined Service Forces arsenals produce ammunition ranging from 30 caliber to 105 mm shells. Also under its control are the manufacture of such varied products as propaganda balloons, dry cell batteries, and uniforms.
School System
American military advice has contributed to the establishment of a military school system second to none in the Asian region. Each of the services has its own academy to train the young officer corps. Special institutions include the National War College, Armed Forces Staff College, Command and General Staff College, Armor, Infantry, and Artillery Schools—not to mention an assortment of technical schools in many specialized branches of military activity. U.S. assistance has provided about US$25 million for the training of some 12,000 officers and men at military colleges and schools in the United States. Not so many are sent now, because the Chinese schools are meeting most of the requirements.
In 1951 and the years just after, MAAG advisers were assigned to all echelons of the Chinese armed forces— from the lowest to the highest command. That was thought necessary in the rebuilding stage, and Chinese officers welcomed the help and counsel. But as the efficiency and sophistication of the Chinese forces grew, and as the dedicated officer corps learned to do its job with distinction, MAAG was able to phase out at the lower levels. Today the advisory effort within the service sections (Army, Navy, Air Force, and Combined Service Forces) generally is confined to the senior command level. However, advisers make periodic visits to field units and offer assistance wherever and whenever it is required.
As now organized, MAAG has five staff sections: Personnel and Administration (of MAAG itself), Programming (for military assistance in the form of material and equipment), Operations (to assist at the Chinese Ministry of National Defense level in implementing various programs), and Logistics (responsible for providing guidance in the utilization of equipment, the establishment and maintenance of radio, wire, and other sophisticated communications systems, and the use of radar and other electronic sensing devices).
Continuing consultation and advice is given in the repair and maintenance of amphibious vehicles; the maintenance of various components of jet aircraft and promotion of air safety; and the repair, storage, and use of the Nike-Hercules and Hawk missiles. Mobile teams are brought from off-island to offer instruction or assistance in the use of new equipment or the solution of special problems. Examples include the installation of fuel injection equipment on M41 tanks and the modification of F100 series aircraft. Such teams assure the American taxpayer of important savings. They come to Taiwan, teach their Chinese counterparts the new technique, and then depart. No continuing expenditure of military aid funds is involved.
Special Forces
Support has been extended to two brigades of Special Forces trained to razor's edge in irregular warfare. This is the same sort of combat training given the famous Green Berets, who are acquitting themselves so heroically in the Vietnam war. Details are hush-hush. But American advisers have attested that Chinese guerrilla fighters are among the world's most highly motivated and best-equipped.
Successful missile test firings over the last four years attest to Republic of China defenses. (File photo)
Of all U.S. activities around the world, military advisement probably brings Americans into the closest contact with the nationals of other countries. The working level is direct—man-to-man. MAAG in the Republic of China is no exception. Americans and Chinese have come to know and under stand one another — and many have formed close friendships that continue through the years. This involves not only the MAAG serviceman but also members of his family. Of the 800 MAAG members of mid-1966, more than 600 have families residing in Taiwan. The total MAAG community adds up to more than 2,700 people. MAAG wives have participated in programs to provide more and better housing for the dependents of ROC armed forces personnel.
Many incidents have demonstrated MAAG friendship with Chinese and interest in the welfare of the Chinese people. MAAG personnel have gone into the mountains to help the aborigines. During the Battle of Kinmen, a MAAG sergeant went to the assistance of wounded Chinese soldiers despite heavy artillery fire. He carried a wounded Chinese officer 75 yards to shelter. MAAG teams continue to serve under Communist artillery fire in the offshore island groups of both Kinmen and Matsu. A few years ago, an amphibious plane was lost on a MAAG flight from Matsu—possibly to enemy action. Just recently a MAAG officer saved the life of a woman bitten by a poisonous snake.
The MAAG mission is not confined to Taipei and the larger cities. MAAG men go where they are needed. They may be found anywhere on the island, wherever there is a military assignment. In fact, of the 800 officers and men, only around 25 are strictly administrative. Overwhelmingly, the MAAG personnel are involved in basic tasks of training and assistance.
Ready to Attack
In financial terms, MAAG has had the tremendous responsibility of overseeing expenditure of nearly US$2.5 billion during the 15-year period. The money has bought security not only for Taiwan and the Pescadores, which are protected by treaty commitment of the United States, but also for America itself. Military estimates of the number of Communist troops tied down along the "invasion coast" just across the Taiwan Straits range as high as 1.5 million. Without the strong military presence of the Republic of China on Taiwan, these Communist forces would be released for aggressive adventures in Southeast Asia, Korea or India. For the United States to finance a 600,000-man restraining force of its own would cost many, many times the two and a half billion spent on the ROC.
Although the MAAG role is essentially defensive—in the sense that the United States has never been the first to attack—the Chinese armed forces are almost as well pre pared for an offensive as for defense of Taiwan. As one MAAG adviser expressed it, "In training for defense, it must always be remembered that the second stage of defense is attack. There has never been a successful defense without an offensive." Nor is it true, as some critics have maintained, that the Chinese armed forces "are too big for defense and too small for offense". As President Chiang Kai-shek has consistently maintained, the 600,000 men of the Chinese armed forces constitute only the vanguard of the revolutionary army that will defeat the Communists and liberate mainland China. The decisive strength of the revolutionary army will come from the mainland people themselves, from Communist armed forces that now await the opportunity to fight for the Republic against the usurpers of Peiping.
When that day comes, the men of MAAG must be given much of the credit for the model military establishment that will bring a new era of freedom to the whole of China. Of course, neither MAAG nor the United States is in a position to give the order—or to withhold it. As General Johnson ex pressed it, "We in MAAG are invited here to assist the armed forces. We have no direction or control responsibilities. That task rests in the capable hands of your President (Chiang Kai-shek), the Minister of National Defense (General Chiang Ching-kuo), and Admiral Ni Yue-si, Chief of the General Staff." Technically and rightly, this is so. Yet when the last battle begins, every MAAG adviser of the present and the past will be with his Chinese comrades in spirit—supremely confident that although the Communists have won battles, the free Chinese can never fail to win the war. Not the least of the reasons is the superb training mission of MAAG-China during the last decade and a half.