Preface

The Foreign Relations of the United States series presents the official documentary historical record of major foreign policy decisions and significant diplomatic activity of the United States Government. The series documents the facts and events that contributed to the formulation of policies and includes evidence of supporting and alternative views to the policy positions ultimately adopted.

The Historian of the Department of State is charged with the responsibility for the preparation of the Foreign Relations series. The staff of the Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, plans, researches, compiles, and edits the volumes in the series. This documentary editing proceeds in full accordance with the generally accepted standards of historical scholarship. Official regulations codifying specific standards for the selection and editing of documents for the series were first promulgated by Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg on March 26, 1925. These regulations, with minor modifications, guided the series through 1991.

A new statutory charter for the preparation of the series was established by Public Law 102–138, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, Fiscal Years 1992 and 1993, which was signed by President George Bush on October 28, 1991. Section 198 of PL. 102–138 added a new Title IV to the Department of State’s Basic Authorities Act of 1956 (22 USC 4351, et seq.).

The statute requires that the Foreign Relations series be a thorough, accurate, and reliable record of major United States foreign policy decisions and significant United States diplomatic activity. The volumes of the series should include all records needed to provide comprehensive documentation of major foreign policy decisions and actions of the United States Government, including facts that contributed to the formulation of policies and records that provided supporting and alternative views to the policy positions ultimately adopted.

The statute confirms the editing principles established by Secretary Kellogg: the Foreign Relations series is guided by the principles of historical objectivity and accuracy; records should not be altered or deletions made without indicating in the published text that a deletion has been made; the published record should omit no facts that were of major importance in reaching a decision; and nothing should be omitted for the purposes of concealing a defect in policy. The statute also requires that the Foreign Relations series be published not more than 30 years after the events recorded.

The editors of this volume are convinced that it meets all regulatory, statutory, and scholarly standards of selection and editing. Although [Page IV] this volume records policies and events of more than 30 years ago, the Foreign Relations statute allows the Department until 1996 to reach the 30-year line in the publication of the series.

Structure and Scope of the Foreign Relations Series

This volume is part of a subseries of the Foreign Relations series for the years 1958–1960. The subseries presents in 19 volumes and 7 microfiche supplements a documentary record of major foreign policy decisions and actions of the final 3 years of the administration of President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Within the 1958–1960 subseries, five volumes, with two microfiche supplements, present the record of U.S. policy toward East Asia. This volume provides documentation on U.S. policy with respect to China, both the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China government on Taiwan. Documentation is included pertaining to Sino-Soviet relations and issues relating to Tibet. Volume XV of the 1958–1960 sub-series presents material on South and Southeast Asia, and Volume XVI includes an overview of U.S. regional policy for East Asia as well as material on U.S. policy toward Cambodia and Laos. Volume I is devoted to U.S. policy toward Vietnam. Volume XVII documents U.S. policy toward Indonesia; Volume XVIII documents U.S. policy regarding Korea and Japan.

A microfiche supplement to the volume presented here contains additional documentation on China, and additional documents are included in the microfiche supplement to Volumes XV and XVI. Other volumes in the subseries that pertain to China include Volume II, United Nations and General International Matters; Volume III, National Security Policy; and Volume IV, Foreign Economic Policy.

Sources for the Foreign Relations Series

The Foreign Relations statute requires that the published record in the Foreign Relations series include all records needed to provide comprehensive documentation on major foreign policy decisions and actions of the U.S. Government. It further requires that government agencies, departments, and other entities of the U.S. Government cooperate with the Department of State Historian by providing full and complete access to records pertinent to foreign policy decisions and actions and by providing copies of selected records. The editors believe that in terms of access this volume was prepared in accordance with the standards and mandates of the statute, although access to some records was restricted, as noted below.

The editors have had complete access to all the retired records and papers in the Department of State: the central files of the Department; the decentralized files (lot files) of the Department at the bureau, office, and division levels; the files of the Department’s Executive Secretariat, which [Page V] contain the records of international conferences and high-level official visits, correspondence with foreign leaders by the President and Secretary of State, and memoranda of conversations between the President and Secretary of State and foreign officials; and the files of overseas diplomatic posts. Certain intelligence-related files maintained in the Bureau of Intelligence and Research became available to the Department historians only after this volume was compiled. Arrangements have been made for Department historians to have access to these records for future volumes.

The editors of the Foreign Relations series also have full access to the papers of President Eisenhower and other White House foreign policy records. Presidential papers maintained and preserved at the Eisenhower Library include some of the most significant foreign affairs-related documentation from other federal agencies including the National Security Council, Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. All of this documentation has been made available for use in the Foreign Relations series thanks to the consent of these agencies and the cooperation and support of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Department of State historians also have access to records of the Department of Defense (particularly the records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretaries of Defense and their major assistants).

Since 1991, the Central Intelligence Agency has provided expanding access to Department of State historians to high-level intelligence documents from those records in the custody of that Agency. Department historians’ expanded access is arranged by the History Staff of the Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, pursuant to a May 1992 memorandum of understanding. Department of State and CIA historians continue to work out the procedural and scholarly aspects of this access, and the variety of documentation made available and selected for publication in the volumes has expanded.

The List of Sources (pages XV–XIX) lists the files consulted and cited in this volume.

Principles of Document Selection for the Foreign Relations Series

In preparing each volume of the Foreign Relations series, the editors are guided by some general principles for the selection of documents. Each editor, in consultation with the General Editor and other senior editors, determines the particular issues and topics to be documented either in detail, in brief, or in summary. Some general decisions are also made regarding issues that cannot be documented in the volume but will be [Page VI] addressed in a microfiche supplement or in editorial or bibliographical notes.

The following general selection criteria are used in preparing volumes in the Foreign Relations series. Individual compiler-editors vary these criteria in accordance with the particular issues and the available documentation. The compiler-editors also tend to apply these selection criteria in accordance with their own interpretation of the generally accepted standards of scholarship. In selecting documentation for publication, the editors give priority to unpublished classified records, rather than previously published records (which are accounted for in appropriate bibliographical notes).

Selection Criteria (in general order of priority):

1.
Major foreign affairs commitments made on behalf of the United States to other governments, including those that define or identify the principal foreign affairs interests of the United States;
2.
Major foreign affairs issues, commitments, negotiations, and activities, whether or not major decisions were made, and including dissenting or alternative opinions to the process ultimately adopted;
3.
The decisions, discussions, actions, and considerations of the President, as the official constitutionally responsible for the direction of foreign policy;
4.
The discussions and actions of the National Security Council, the Cabinet, and special Presidential policy groups, including the policy options brought before these bodies or their individual members;
5.
The policy options adopted by or considered by the Secretary of State and the most important actions taken to implement Presidential decisions or policies;
6.
Diplomatic negotiations and conferences, official correspondence, and other exchanges between U.S. representatives and those of other governments that demonstrate the main lines of policy implementation on major issues;
7.
Important elements of information that attended Presidential decisions and policy recommendations of the Secretary of State;
8.
Major foreign affairs decisions, negotiations, and commitments undertaken on behalf of the United States by government officials and representatives in other agencies in the foreign affairs community or other branches of government made without the involvement (or even knowledge) of the White House or the Department of State;
9.
The main policy lines of intelligence activities if they constituted major aspects of U.S. foreign policy toward a nation or region or if they provided key information in the formulation of major U.S. policies;
10.
The role of the Congress in the preparation and execution of particular foreign policies or foreign affairs actions;
11.
Economic aspects of foreign policy;
12.
The main policy lines of U.S. military and economic assistance as well as other types of assistance;
13.
The political-military recommendations, decisions, and activities of the military establishment and major regional military commands as they bear upon the formulation or execution of major U.S. foreign policies;
14.
Documentation that illuminates special decisionmaking processes that accomplished the policies recorded in particular volumes;
15.
Diplomatic appointments that reflect major policies or affect policy changes.

Scope and Focus of Documents Researched and Selected for Foreign Relations, 1958–1960, Volume XIX

Most of the research for this volume was completed in 1981. The editing was largely completed in 1985–1986.

The Eisenhower Library is the most important repository for records on high-level policy formulation for this period. The Library’s collections were especially valuable for the period of the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1958, when President Eisenhower and Secretary of State John Foster Dulles were deeply involved in policymaking. The Whitman File, constituting Eisenhower’s papers as President as maintained by his secretary Ann Whitman, and the Papers of Secretary Dulles were especially valuable. The Staff Secretary’s Records and the Records of the Office of the Special Assistant for National Security Affairs contain a number of documents which were originally in the Project Clean Up file and are so cited in the volume.

The Department of State played the leading role in formulating foreign policy alternatives and providing advice on foreign policy matters to the President, and it had the principal responsibility for conducting exchanges of views and negotiations on policy matters with foreign governments. The Department of State’s files include cable traffic between the Department and U.S. embassies, consulates, and other overseas missions, memoranda of conversations with foreign representatives and internal meetings, and internal memoranda. They also include many White House and National Security Council documents, interagency communications, and records of interagency discussions, some of which are duplicated at the Eisenhower Library and in other-agency files, and some of which are not found elsewhere. The records of the United States Mission at the United Nations in New York were also consulted in the research for this volume.

Military records were also important, especially for the period of the Taiwan Strait crisis. Copies of many Department of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff documents are in the Department of State files and the [Page VIII] Eisenhower Library. In addition, the editor had access to retired records of the Department of Defense at the Washington National Records Center, the Burke Papers at the Naval Historical Center, and declassified records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the National Archives and Records Administration. Copies of classified JCS documents were obtained from the Joint Staff by request.

Expanded Central Intelligence Agency access for Department of State historians resulted in the inclusion in this volume of relevant documents, including a few documents from the Allen Dulles Files and from the CIA History Staff Historical Files. Other intelligence documents were found in Department of State files and were obtained at the Eisenhower Library with the cooperation of the CIA History Staff.

Other sources that were used in researching this volume include the John Foster Dulles Papers at Princeton University Library and the Burke Papers at the Naval Historical Center.

The volume focuses on the formulation of U.S. policy with regard to China and on the most significant aspects of the U.S. relationship with the People’s Republic of China and U.S. relations with the Republic of China on Taiwan. The editor gave primary consideration to the formulation of policy within the U.S. government, with emphasis on the highest level at which policy on a particular aspect of U.S. policy was determined, and to high-level exchanges with foreign governments. Policy recommendations to President Eisenhower and his decisions with respect to government policies and actions are documented as fully as possible. Discussions and actions of the National Security Council and Presidential discussions of policy with Cabinet-level officers are included, as are discussions between Secretary of State Dulles and his top advisers. During the Taiwan Strait crisis, both Eisenhower and Dulles played more active roles in policymaking on China than was usually the case. The editor tried to include as much as possible of the extensive documentation reflecting this.

Space limitations for this volume and the series as a whole necessitate great selectivity in the choice of documents beyond those at the highest level. Documentation on relations with the Republic of China is generally confined to discussions of key issues between high-level officials. In general, the emphasis is on political developments, but some material is included on U.S. efforts to encourage economic development on Taiwan. Summary records of all the Ambassadorial talks at Warsaw are included. As a rule, space constraints preclude the inclusion in the series of reportage on internal developments in foreign countries, but the editor sought to include reportage, analyses, and intelligence estimates, especially concerning the China mainland, which were seen by high-level policymakers and may have influenced the making of policy.

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A small amount of material on U.S. policy toward Hong Kong is included in the documentation on China, but no attempt was made to document relations with the British authorities in Hong Kong. Documentation on issues relating to Tibet is included in a separate compilation at the end of the volume.

The microfiche supplement contains additional documents on all these subjects. Many of those documents are cited in the volume with an indication that the document is in the supplement.

Editorial Methodology

The documents are presented chronologically according to Washington time or, in the case of conferences, in the order of individual meetings. Incoming telegrams from U.S. Missions are placed according to time of receipt in the Department of State or other receiving agency, rather than the time of transmission; memoranda of conversation are placed according to the time and date of the conversation, rather than the date the memorandum was drafted.

Editorial treatment of the documents published in the Foreign Relations series follows Office style guidelines, supplemented by guidance from the General Editor and the chief technical editor. The source text is reproduced as exactly as possible, including marginalia or other notations, which are described in the footnotes. Texts are transcribed and printed according to accepted conventions for the publication of historical documents in the limitations of modern typography. A heading has been supplied by the editors for each document included in the volume. Spelling, capitalization, and punctuation are retained as found in the source text, except that obvious typographical errors are silently corrected. Other mistakes and omissions in the source text are corrected by bracketed insertions: a correction is set in italic type; an addition in roman type. Words or phrases underlined in the source text are printed in italics. Abbreviations and contractions are preserved as found in the source text, and a list of abbreviations is included in the front matter of each volume.

Bracketed insertions are also used to indicate omitted text that deals with an unrelated subject (in roman type) or that remains classified after declassification review (in italic type). The amount of material not declassified has been noted by indicating the number of lines or pages of source text that were omitted. Entire documents withheld for declassification purposes have been accounted for and are listed by headings, source notes, and number of pages not declassified in their chronological place. The amount of material omitted from this print volume and from the microfiche supplement because it was unrelated to the subject of the volume, however, has not been delineated. All brackets and ellipses that appear in the source text are so identified by footnotes.

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The first footnote to each document indicates the document’s source, original classification, distribution, and drafting information. The source footnote also provides the background of important documents and policies and indicates if the President or his major policy advisers read the document. Every effort has been made to determine if a document has been previously published, and this information has been included in the source footnote.

Editorial notes and additional annotation summarize pertinent material not printed in the volume, indicate the location of additional documentary sources, provide references to important related documents printed in other volumes, describe key events, and provide summaries of and citations to public statements that supplement and elucidate the printed documents. Information derived from memoirs and other first-hand accounts has been used when appropriate to supplement or explicate the official record.

Declassification Review

The declassification review process for this volume resulted in the withholding from publication of less than two percent of the selected documentation. Material withheld from the China compilation (pp. 1–750), constituting less than one percent of the selected documents, consists largely of information pertaining to intelligence activities, sources, and methods, some intelligence analyses, and some material concerning planning for possible military contingencies. The documents declassified and published here provide an accurate account of the major foreign policy issues and the major policies undertaken by the U.S. Government pertaining to China during this period, apart from issues relating to Tibet.

The compilation on Tibet in this volume falls short of the standards of thoroughness and accuracy mandated for the Foreign Relations series by 22 USC 4351. Portions of documents, comprising approximately 12 percent of all the documentation about Tibet selected by Department of State historians for inclusion in this compilation, were denied declassification by the Central Intelligence Agency, in accordance with existing laws, procedures, and policies. The portions withheld from declassification concern intelligence activities, including sources and methods, relating to U.S. sympathy for and assistance to the Tibetan national independence movement throughout the last years of the Eisenhower administration and the provision of covert support to the failed Tibetan armed resistance. Although a substantial part of the official record of assistance to the Tibetan rebellion originally proposed for publication is presented here, it contains many deletions of various length. The CIA determined that the disclosure of various particular details of aspects of [Page XI] the planning and implementation of these intelligence activities would damage national security interests.

The final declassification decisions were made following a final appeal process established by 22 USC 4353 to resolve the conflicting requirements for historical accuracy and for the protection of national security information in preparing the Foreign Relations series. The Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation also made repeated recommendations for the fullest possible disclosure. While the record of major U.S. policy and activities with regard to Tibet as presented here is incomplete, the editors believe it should be included with this acknowledgment of its limitations. At such time as the portions of documents withheld from this Tibet compilation, as well as any additional significant documentation, is declassified, the Department of State will make it available in a subsequent Foreign Relations volume or some other appropriate manner.

The Division of Historical Documents Review of the Office of Freedom of Information, Privacy, and Classification Review, Bureau of Administration, Department of State, conducted the declassification review of the documents published in this volume. The review was conducted in accordance with the standards set forth in Executive Order 12356 on National Security Information and applicable laws.

Under Executive Order 12356, information that concerns one or more of the following categories, and the disclosure of which reasonably could be expected to cause damage to the national security, requires classification:

1)
military plans, weapons, or operations;
2)
the vulnerabilities or capabilities of systems, installations, projects, or plans relating to the national security;
3)
foreign government information;
4)
intelligence activities (including special activities), or intelligence sources or methods;
5)
foreign relations or foreign activities of the United States;
6)
scientific, technological, or economic matters relating to national security;
7)
U.S. Government programs for safeguarding nuclear materials or facilities;
8)
cryptology; or
9)
a confidential source.

The principle guiding declassification review is to release all information, subject only to the current requirements of national security and law. Declassification decisions entailed concurrence of the appropriate geographic and functional bureaus in the Department of State, other concerned agencies of the U.S. Government, and the appropriate foreign governments regarding specific documents of those governments.

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Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation

The Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation, established under the Foreign Relations statute, reviews records, advises, and makes recommendations concerning the Foreign Relations series. The Advisory Committee monitors the overall compilation and editorial process of the series and assists with any access and/or clearance problems that arise. Time constraints prevent the Advisory Committee from reviewing all volumes in the series.

The Committee has reviewed this volume and been apprised of the decisions of the Department of State, Central Intelligence Agency, and National Security Council regarding declassification review of the Tibet compilation. The Committee concluded that a full explication of U.S. policy with regard to Tibet was integral and essential to a comprehensive and accurate record of U.S. policy toward China. In light of the decisions against declassification of the complete record at this time, the Advisory Committee has recommended including an acknowledgment of the incompleteness of the volume.

Acknowledgments

The editor wishes to acknowledge the assistance of officials at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Library, in particular David Haight, who provided invaluable help in the collection of documents for this volume. Mary McAuliffe of the Central Intelligence Agency History Staff assisted in arranging access to that Agency’s records. Others who deserve special thanks include Nancy Bressler at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University, Edward Marolda at the Naval Historical Center, and Sandra Meagher at the Department of Defense.

Harriet Dashiell Schwar compiled and edited the material presented in this volume under the supervision of former Editor in Chief John P. Glennon. David W. Mabon provided planning and direction. General Editor Glenn W. LaFantasie supervised the final steps in the editing and publication process. Gabrielle Mallon prepared the lists of persons and abbreviations. Rita M. Baker and Althea W. Robinson performed the technical editing. Barbara A. Bacon or the Publishing Services Division oversaw the production of the volume. Max Franke prepared the index.

William Z. Slany
The Historian
Bureau of Public Affairs

October 1995