The US Air Force sought to attack China with nuclear weapons early on during the Chinese military blockade of Kinmen and Matsu in 1958, but then-US president Dwight D. Eisenhower vetoed the idea, newly declassified Air Force histories released on Wednesday show.
But while Eisenhower rejected the use of the nuclear weapons as a first response to the Chinese actions, he and his top officials did not rule out their use if the crisis went on for an extended period. In that case, “nuclear strikes apparently would follow,” the documents reveal.
Air Force officials advocated hitting targets in the area of Xiamen and other cities, including Shanghai, if the crisis escalated, the documents, released by the National Security Archives, an anti-secrecy research institute located at George Washington University in Washington showed.
As the crisis grew, members of Eisenhower’s Cabinet and military leaders “accepted the idea that the United States would have to resort to nuclear weapons to prevent the Communists from using ships and aircraft to isolate the Nationalist-held islands,” one document said.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Nathan Twining, advocated dropping 10 kiloton to 15 kiloton nuclear bombs near what was then known as Amoy, and possibly on “airfields as far distant as Shanghai,” the document says.
While admitting that such acts “might bring down nuclear vengeance” on Taiwan, he “considered this is a risk that would have to be taken if the offshore islands were to be defended,” it says.
Pacific Air Force commander, General Laurence Kuter, was the main proponent of the immediate nuclear option, and was astounded when he found out that Eisenhower rejected it, the history says. Based on his assumption, in mid-August of 1958, five Strategic Air Command B-47s on Guam went on alert “to conduct nuclear raids against mainland airfields,” the document says.
On Aug. 25, at a White House meeting, Eisenhower “rejected the idea of using atomic weapons immediately upon the outbreak of hostilities. Instead, he insisted that the first strikes be made with high explosives, although nuclear weapons would be available if needed for subsequent attacks,” the history shows.
By October, the crisis subsided as China apparently concluded that the massive US response in defense of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (將介石) and his government rendered an all-out attack on the offshore islands not worth the effort, the history suggests.
The 10 formerly secret and top-secret histories of the US Air Force, which contain the history of the 1958 Taiwan crisis, were obtained by the archives under a Freedom of Information Act request initially filed in the 1990s and released only after a recent court action.
An analysis accompanying the Quemoy-Matsu crisis history suggests that the incident had a wider implication for US military strategy, and especially its thoughts on nuclear warfare.
“The assumption that the United States would meet Communist aggression by immediate nuclear retaliation did not survive the Taiwan crisis of 1958,” the document says. “The caution [Eisenhower] displayed at the time ... forced US military planners to review their attitudes concerning nuclear wars.”
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS