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{
    "localId": "750241",
    "label": "Foreign Affairs File, 1940-1953: China: Record of Round-Table Discussion by 25 Far East Experts with the Department of State on \"American Policy Toward China\":  October 6, 7 and 8, 1949",
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    "title": "Foreign Affairs File, 1940-1953: China: Record of Round-Table Discussion by 25 Far East Experts with the Department of State on \"American Policy Toward China\":  October 6, 7 and 8, 1949",
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    "ocrText": "- -76\n\"NATIONAL\nARCHIVES AN\nRECORDS\nsuitable personnel and the innumerable difficulties that\nSERVICE\"\nalways seem to beset the best of intentions The Fulbright\nAct, however, 13 miniscule by comparison to the needs and\naspirations of these areas. I feel that any guidance that\nthis group could offer in refining and enlarging our US in-\nformational and educational program and in enlisting our\nprivate educational groups in a multitude of both advanced\nand elementary programs,\nmight be amply repaid\nin terms of long=run national interests.\nNow these are some of the assets we possess in South-\neast Asia. Where, then, are the weak points in our potenti-\nalitiea? Here 1 would like to consider two types of weak=\nnesses, those which are inherent in Southeast Asia and those\nwhich are inherently our own.\nIt seems a justifiable assumption that the Chinese\nCommunists will continue their push into the neighboring\ncountries of Southeast Asia. What their reactions will be\nwill depend upon the nature of the push. Let us suppose\nthat it would be directly military and would be limited to\nthe land approaches.\nMr. Furnivall, an outstanding British expert sympa-\nthetle to the present Burmese Government, is convinced\nnoching would heal the present schisms in Burma more\neffectively than an armed Chinese incursion along the\nnorthern Sino-Burmese border.\nIn Indochina the diclike of the Chinese is traditional\nIt has been reinforced by the postwar Chinese occupation\nof northern Indochina Any Vietnamese Communist leader-\nship in the Republic of Vietnam which would encourage or\ncondone Chinese military incursions would be widely ais\ncredited and might make more friends for Bao Dai than the\nFrench or the Emperor himself have yet been able to win.\nThailand's traditional nationalism and anti-Chinese\nposition is presently more overt than ever under the\nauthoritarian Premier Phibun In fact, Phibun has re-\ncently stated that Thailand would welcome British and\nAmerican troops on Thai soil in the event of a Communist\ninvarion.\nAll of these factors are not unknown to the Chinese\nCommunists and it seems improbable, therefore, that they\nwould take the risks involved in direct military action\neven though they might be militarily successful. Also, it\nis still far from clear that the USSR trusts the Chinese\nCommunists"
}