Quemoy and Matsu: a historical footnote revisited.

• Author: Norris, Robert B.

Whatever happened to Quemoy and Matsu? Fifty years ago--in October, 1960--the destiny of these Chinese islands was hotly discussed during the Kennedy-Nixon presidential debates.

Quemoy, now known as Kinmen, is within a few miles of the China coast at the entrance to the important port of Xiamen. Matsu is also located just a few miles off another major port of China. Both islands are over a hundred miles from Taiwan. When Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalist army was defeated on the mainland by the Communists in 1949, he and about 600,000 of his troops fled to Taiwan, to where the government of the Republic of China was transferred. During that retreat, the Nationalists fortified Quemoy and Matsu. In October 1949, the Nationalists repelled a serious invasion attempt by the Communists to seize Quemoy.

Although shore batteries shelled both islands relentlessly during the 1950's and '60's, the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) has not mounted another invasion effort against either island. The distinguished British historian, Margaret MacMillan, believes that Mao Tse-tung may have concluded that it was in the best interest of the PRC to leave Quemoy and Matsu in the hands of the Nationalists. If the PRC were to seize the islands or the Nationalists were to abandon them, the distance between the mainland and Taiwan would lengthen from a few miles to over a hundred, and "perhaps in thought as well." (1) Moreover, the acquisition of these offshore islands by the PRC and their separation from Nationalist control would tend to validate acceptance of the "two Chinas" policy to which both Mao Tse-tung and Chiang Kai-shek were vehemently opposed.

Early on in the presidential debates, Kennedy was asked if the United States defense line in the Far East should include Quemoy and Matsu. Kennedy responded that these islands--just a few miles off the coast of China and more than a hundred miles from Taiwan--were strategically indefensible and were not essential to the defense of Taiwan. The Massachusetts Senator also alluded to the unsuccessful efforts by the Eisenhower Administration to persuade Chiang Kai-shek to abandon the offshore islands in order to avoid the possibility of being dragged into a major confrontation with the PRC over these two islands. Perhaps feeling the need to disagree with Kennedy, Vice President Nixon countered. Since Quemoy and Matsu were in the "area of freedom," Nixon contended that they should not be surrendered to the Communists as...