The Second Eisenhower Administration Policy Toward Asia

Since the Korean War the Sino-American relations entered into a long time of enmity. The United States no longer made approaches to China to detach it away from the Soviet. After Dwight David Eisenhower assumed the reins of government the emphasis of American's containment strategies shifted from Europe to Asia. In 1954 the National Security Council adopted NSC5429/2 and NSC5429/5. These two documents regarded China as the main enemy of the United States. This dissertation explored how the above documents put into effect and revealed the evolution of the Asia policy of United States in two terms of Eisenhower Administration. In the second term of Eisenhower Administration there were lots of changes in Asia situation. In 1959 the National Security Council adopted NSC5913/1. It was a careful review of the NSC5429/5. It also reflected the diversifications of the international situation in late 1950s. On analyzing the formation process and the main points of the NSC5913/1, the dissertation provided a full scene of the United States Asia policy in the late 1950s. Besides, the dissertation researched carefully Eisenhower Administration's policy toward Asia states from the area policy angle and investigated deeply into several problems with area significance. In the realm of Asia security the dissertation studied the rise and decline of the Western Pacific Collective Defense Arrangement and in the economic realm explained how American policy shifted from increasing economic aids for Asia to encourage the regional economic cooperation and development.This dissertation consists of six chapters other than the preface and conclusion. The preface summarized the academic achievements and deficiencies on Eisenhower Administration's Asia policy. Based on thesummarizing it chose the second Eisenhower Administration's policy in Asia as the dissertation's theme. The first chapter studied the formation processes and main points of NSC5429/2 and NSC5429/5 and presented some basic characters of Eisenhower Administration's policy in Asia. The second chapter emphasized on Eisenhower Administration's collective security policy in Asia. The dissertation considered that the idea of a Western Pacific Collective Defense Arrangement put forward in NSC5429 series was one of the important parts of Eisenhower Administration's Asia policy. But the idea was not without foundation, it had some connections to the Pacific Pact of Truman Administration. But like as the fate of the Pacific Pact, the Western Pacific Collective Defense Arrangement was ended with fruitlessness because of the great animosities possessed by ROK, Philippines and Nationalist regime in Taiwan against Japan. In late 1950s, dealing with the SEATO was another important part of United States collective security policy in Asia. The United States once considered joining all kinds of defense treaties in Asia together through extending the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization. But this was not an easy thing. Furthermore, the inherent vice of SEATO made it difficult to exert effectively such influence as expected by United States. The third chapter explored how the idea of an economic grouping of free Asian states was put forward and then abandoned. This chapter studied the relations between United States and the Colombo Plan in particular because the rising of the idea of an economic grouping of free Asian states was tied up with the review of the Colombo Plan by United States. Moreover, the United States decided finally to abandoned the idea of an economic grouping of free Asian states is also because the United States wanted to consult with Britain in Asia problems and cannot embarrass Britain in the question of Colombo Plan. The emphasis of the Asia economic policy of the second Eisenhower Administration was placed on promoting Asian economic cooperation and development at present level of aid and throughstrengthening the Colombo Plan Consultative Committee. The fourth chapter mainly dealt with the Sino-American confrontation and the adjustments of American pol...