The original plan, in 1950, was to attack Formosa before the typhoon season began in June. The Russians knew then what the world knows now from the 1951 release of Dean Acheson’s diplomatic report of December 23, 1949, that we had written off Formosa as of no importance to our Pacific defenses. Acheson tried, in vain, to involve Lieutenant General Wedemeyer in this act of treachery. Acheson testified, June 1, 1951, that the State Department prepared the report after Wedemeyer, then Assistant Chief of Staff, suggested to the State Department that it use the Voice of America to “minimize” any damage that might result from the fall of Formosa. But we know from the complete Wedemeyer Report that the General advocated unequivocal defense of Formosa as being of definite strategic importance in our chain of defenses in the Pacific. MacArthur and Wedemeyer both had warned that the fall of Formosa would leave Japan, Okinawa and the Philippines outflanked. The following is an account of how the enemy planned to take Formosa with an offensive beginning June, 1950.
Chang Kuo Sin reported: “We are given to understand that the island will be taken by the biggest land, sea and air force that has yet been launched against any place within the Russian orbit. They will muster hundreds of fighting planes and thirty warships, plus thousands of troops for this invasion. The warships, of course, include many that went over to the Communists from the Nationalist forces.”
The Chinese correspondent was not the only one who watched with alarm the preparations for the invasion of Formosa. From every side came evidence of the size and strength of the forces assembling for the attack. The British, after recognition of the Communist Government, and in order to protect their investments, were forced into the distasteful position of giving them, by court order, ninety airplanes. Worth twenty million dollars, these planes belonged to the airline companies owned by the picturesque American flyer Claire L. Chennault, whose famous “Flying Tiger” raids on the Japanese added brilliant pages to American military history. This high-handed transfer of American-made planes, probably the best in the world outside those in use by the U. S. Air Force, to the Communists by the British was cause for alarm in official circles. The planes will undoubtedly wind up under the direct control of the Kremlin, whether or not they are used for the initial air assault on Formosa.
The ground forces were nominally to be under the command of the Mayor of Shanghai, who was said to have marshalled a picked force of one hundred and eighty thousand troops for the invasion. Their training in beach landings and personal combat was supervised by the Russians, and many of their special weapons are said to have been of Soviet make. The Mayor, a pawn of the Russians, was content to leave the military strategy entirely in the hands of his more than helpful allies.
Russian engineers were busy at every port from which the invasion might be launched. After forcing those already on the job to resign, they hired shipbuilders and began work on the dockyards, repairing the damage caused by Nationalist bombings. They assembled ships of different sizes and made them ready for invasion day. So we see that the Russians were well occupied in Shanghai.
The fact that American troops were withdrawn by the State Department from occupation in South Korea a few months earlier, left that country a more logical target of opportunity to begin their aggressive action. This explains why the Formosa attack was not made as originally scheduled in 1950.
In Canton the Russians were busy moving complete factories to Siberia, just as they had done earlier in Manchuria. This, they said, was to save them from Nationalist bombs. The real reason was that they needed them to build up Siberia industrially. Most of the Southern factories produced cement, cotton cloth or chemicals, vitally needed to support the large Siberian populace. It mattered little to the Russians that China needed these same commodities for herself. When workers complained that they could not live without their jobs, the Communist bosses said: “Well, then, come along with your plant and bring your family.” When the workers, usually encumbered with large families, would ask hopefully about transportation, they would always receive the same reply: “Can’t you walk? We did on the ‘Long March.’ You can, too.”
The Chinese are always desperately in need of doctors, and the Communists, right after taking over the country, allowed the physicians to go about their business unmolested, provided they did not discuss politics. So great was the demand for medical services that outrageous fees were charged. The Communists permitted this situation to continue, as it kept the doctors happy. With a flood raging in China and plague beginning to show itself, doctors were a priceless commodity. Even Russian doctors and scientists were brought in and added to the Ministry of Health in China.
Although the flood of 1950 was the worst one in years, it did not stop the Russians from sending food out of the country and into Siberia. The Chinese granaries were empty, and everyone was hungry. In Shanghai alone there were reported at least a hundred and twenty thousand foodless and homeless refugees, and no agency was able to do anything for them. It became dangerous for the average citizen, poor though he might be, to go out in the streets at night. Every morning a number of dead bodies were found piled up against the walls of buildings.
Mao Tse-tung, his slogans still promising “Abundance for All,” ordered a part of the army to work on the cooperative farms and offered handsome rewards for boosting food production. In Peking the worried Chinese Communists admitted that there were some nine million people dead or dying in those areas, but that they were unable to halt the shipments out of the country. Starving beggars in filthy rags, a not unusual sight in China during the famine and flood seasons, died by the score on the streets of Nanking and Shanghai, where they had come with the faint hope of finding work. These were the stronger ones; the weaker were never able to leave their villages, or else they fell along the way.