se talks be a party to any
arrangements which would prejudice rights of our ally, the Republic of
China.

We know by hard experiences that the Chinese Communist leaders are
indeed militant and aggressive. But we cannot believe that they would
now persist in a course of military aggression which would threaten
world peace, with all that would be involved. We believe that
diplomacy can and should find a way out. There are measures that can
be taken to assure that these offshore islands will not be a thorn in
the side of peace. We believe that arrangements are urgently required
to stop gunfire and to pave the way to a peaceful solution.

If the bilateral talks between Ambassadors do not fully succeed, there
is still the hope that the United Nations could exert a peaceful
influence on the situation.

In 1955 the hostilities of the Chinese Communists in the Formosa area
were brought before the United Nations Security Council. But the
Chinese Communists rejected its jurisdiction. They said that they were
entitled to Formosa and the offshore islands and that, if they used
armed force to get them, that was purely a "civil war" and that the
United Nations had no right to concern itself.

They claimed also that the attack by the Communist north Koreans on
south Korea was "civil war," and that the United Nations and the
United States were "aggressors" because they helped south Korea. They
said the same about their attack on Viet-Nam.

I feel sure that these pretexts will never deceive or control world
opinion. The fact is that Communist Chinese hostilities in the Formosa
Straits area do endanger world peace. I do not believe that any
rulers, however aggressive they may be, will flout efforts to find a
peaceful and honorable solution, whether it be by direct negotiations
or through the United Nations.

My friends, we are confronted with a serious situation. But it is
typical of the security problems of the world today. Powerful and
aggressive forces are constantly probing, now here, now there, to see
whether the free world is weakening. In the face of this there are no
easy choices available. It is misleading for anyone to imply that
there are.

However, the present situation, though serious, is by no means
desperate or hopeless.

There is not going to be any appeasement.

I believe that there is not going to be any war.

But there must be sober realization by the American people that our
legitimate purposes are again