Memorandum: from Consul General at Taipei (MacDonald) to the Secretary of State

Date: December 3, 1949, Taipei

Subject: US responsibility for Taiwan

Point brought out by L. K. Little of China Customs with ECA Nason believed worthy of relay is: Announced US policy is to resist communism at Chinese borders; regardless of opinion elsewhere Far Eastern peoples consider Taiwan outside China; therefore, if US allows Communist take over Taiwan doubt will develop in Japanese and Southeast Asian minds as to sincerity US pronouncement and advisability their own resistance. In addition many in same areas consider US has special responsibility for Taiwan through its military liberation of island, Yalta and Cairo Declarations, and dominant position rest Japanese Empire.

[ source: United States Department of State / Foreign relations of the United States, 1949. The Far East: China Volume IX (1949), page 433 ]

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