Madame Chiang [Kai-shek] - Chicago - 9-3-58 neg. Trims SOF and Sil.

Transcript (Download)

Launching the murder squad that if Quimoy Island is lost, then it means that it's the beginning of the loss of a whole chain of lands.

Taiwan, Philippines, Japan, probably Hawaii in time, and the North American continent.

And so you cannot understand how far we are willing to go to defend ourselves.

Well, I think that we will just have to rest on Admiral Smoot's statement, because that is what the communists would want to know, and certainly we don't want to tell them about it.

Well, I think it is a question of further aggression.

And today, again, it is a question of whether the free world is willing to cut out the cancer by showing them that the free world is against communism, and that their desire to be free is shared by all freedom -loving men and women over the world.

Start from within or without? It's a case of synchronization.

Madame, President Truman yesterday said that...

We will never invade China mainland, because it would not be a case of invasion.

It would be the case of getting back what belongs to the Chinese people.

Well, then you do in another way.

Madame, do you...

Well, you have seen what Admiral Smoot has said, what the United States is doing.

So I think that should answer your question.

Well, do you think...

In referring to the attacks on Kim -Oi and Matsu, you said if this state of affairs is allowed to continue, and specifically if the foreign policy pronouncements of the United States are made to look ridiculous in the eyes of the world, then communist tyranny will overrun and overpower not only the non -communist areas of Asia, but in time the Western Hemisphere as well.

Madame Chung, what do you think the United States should do or say in order to stop being made to look ridiculous? We want to avoid a third world war, and the only way to avoid it is for us to get back the mainland.

Otherwise you will have a third world war.

Madame Chung, Bob Brennan telling you again.

Well, Russia is in the UN, but I don't notice that it has...

That it does any good to be...

For Russia to be in the UN, do you expect for it to veto anything that is constructive towards peace? We have no grounds in which to bargain with Red China.

But why do you want to bargain? Haven't you read my speech in the case of Russia? Your own United States Senate has shown that within the last 37 years of its existence, how many treaties they have broken.

Yes, but in the speech of the US ambassador to the UN, Henry Cavett Lodge, yesterday, he observed that the fact that Russia was in the UN has showed to the eyes of the world that Russia is interested in nothing but subversion of...

Well, isn't that enough example without having any more? How much...

How many examples do you need? But there is no opportunity to expose Red China.

But Red China doesn't need an exposition.

It is an exposition in itself.

Look what they're doing to the people.

Look what they're doing to Korea.

Haven't you had enough of your boys dead in Korea? Well, I hear that the daily worker also thinks that you are running a dictatorship in America.

And other papers, and other people, and the communists all say so.

So I don't see that that makes it any more valid.

A clear -cut and strong stand is taken by the free world, specifically the United States as the leader of the free world.

That will stop the communists short on their tracks more than anything else in the world.

You think they're playing a waiting game.

How long can we keep it clear? It is this way.

When the communists see that they can't get any further, then they stop short on their tracks.

But when they think that they can carry on their bluffs, they will carry on their bluffs.

And as I say over and over again, the communist world does not want war at present for the reason that they are not ready for war.

And second, if they can get the fruits of war without going to war, why go into the trouble? But when the time comes, when they are ready for war, no amount of appeasement and no amount of giving in will do any good.

Madam, I'm sure Bob Brown again is telling you...

A vagant of China mainland.

China mainland, yes.

Of China mainland, from Taiwan.

I can't remember exactly.

I can't remember exactly whether...

No, I don't think so, because then we were preparing, and the time was not right.

I want to point out again that we don't invade the mainland.

We get back what is rightfully, what rightfully belongs to China, to the Republic of China.

Because what is happening on the mainland is not that they are being, that the administration is Chinese.

The administration is backed by Russia and is a Russian puppet, just as it is in certain parts of Europe.

That time will come, and that time it will depend not only on our own military power, but will also when the people are sufficiently organized so that they can make a revolt, synchronize a revolt throughout the country.

I'm not here to criticize any approach of your State Department, but I say that those pro -West leaders, Baisul, Abdullah Ila, and Yuri Al -Sayed, there are no pro -Western leaders, more pro -West and more anti -communist than they, and they were murdered.

But you think, though, you feel strongly that Iraq was, the revolt in Iraq was communist inspired.

And you think that Iraq then should not have been recognized by the United States, the new government in Iraq, the revolutionary government.

We have not recognized it.

What the United States should do is your business.

But we have not recognized it.

Well, in your speech earlier you mentioned you were slightly critical of the State Department's position in foreign policy, especially in relation to the Formosa situation.

I was wondering if you felt that you might feel critical, for example, about the recognition of Iraq, your government.

Where was I particularly critical? Would you point it out? Two more questions.

Identifier

F.2012-03-1224

Date Of Production

September 3 1958

Abstract

Soong Mei-ling (aka Madame Chiang Kai-shek) gives a press conference at The Drake hotel during her visit to Chicago on September 3, 1958. She denounces Soviet Russia and the People's Republic of China while defending the right of the Republic of China to re-take mainland China by force.

Description

Soong Mei-ling (aka Madame Chiang Kai-shek), the First Lady of the Republic of China, gives a press conference in Chicago on September 3, 1958. She was in Chicago to speak at The American Legion 40th National Convention. She speaks strongly against the Soviet Union and Communism, referring to Communism as a "cancer" which must be opposed by "freedom loving" people. She speaks about Quemoy Island and the 1958 Taiwan Strait Crisis, the goal of the Republic of China to take back mainline China from the People's Republic of China (which she calls a puppet of Russia), about her belief that the spread of Communism must be stopped, and about the 14 July Revolution in Iraq.

After this, the remainder of the footage is silent. There are exterior shots of the sign for The Drake hotel and then Soong Mei-ling is escorted into the hotel using the entrance on Walton Pl. This is followed by footage of her entering where the conference is taking place and of reporters. 16mm cameras can be seen set up to record. All of this footage appears to precede the press conference, even though it comes after it on the reel.

Run Time

0:10:26

Format

16mm

Extent

375 feet

Color

B&W

Sound

Optical

Reel/Tape Number

1/1

Has Been Digitized?

Yes

Language Of Materials

English

Element

Negatives

Genre

Journalism
Political

Form

Press Conferences

Subject

China
Cold War
Soviet Union
Hotels

Related Collections

SUBSERIES IX: Military & Foreign Affairs

Related Places

North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Chicago

Main Credits

Koza, Frank (is filmmaker)

Participants And Performers

Chiang, May-ling Soong (is interviewee)

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