Granting or withholding of official recognition by the United States will not make or break the Chinese Communist regime, according to three University experts.
Speaking on the Lowell Institute's "America at the Crossroad" program over WEEI last night, Professor John K. Fairbank '29, Associate Professor Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. '38, and Benjamin I. Schwartz 4G, graduate student fellow at the Russian Research Center, agreed that U.S. recognition of the Chinese Red will play a small part in the future of Asia.
Schlesinger called for "a return to the Jeffersonian principle of recognizing de facto governments," and said that American recognition of the Communist regime should follow the defeat of all organized Nationalist resistance on the mainland.
The U.S. must "make a real effort to maintain contact with the Chinese," said Fairbank. The three speakers pointed to the Yugoslav-Russia break as an example of what might happen under a Communist government in China without American interference.
Schlesinger called the statement of Secretary of State Dean Acheson that he would consult the Senate before making any decision on the recognition of Communist China "part of the trend away from executive decision on matters of foreign policy."
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