Page:Pentagon-Papers-Part-V-B-3d.djvu/179

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Declassified per Executive Order 13526, Section 3.3
NND Project Number: NND 63316. By: NWD Date: 2011

timing of major policy changes toward either of their countries is dependent upon the death or retirement of the respective president. Since the three men are firmly sponsored by the United States, policy failure to support then in the international arena, or to allow them to be overthrown violently by the opposition in their countries, would have undesirable repercussions not only in the nation itself but throughout the world. United States policy in the future should seek to avoid such personal commitments and should be aimed toward the development of governmental institutions in the countries of the Far East that can survive changing chief executives with little or no disruption.

13. The task of the United States in coping with the situation in the Far East is complicated by the divergencies on policy with its European allies. This is particularly important with respect to the posture of the United States toward China and the extent to which political and economic pressures can be applied against the Communist regime in Mainland China. British, French, and Dutch interests still in the area must be taken into account.

14. The United States must meet total hostility on the part of the two major power centers or the Far East, the Soviet Far East and Communist China, projected into the areas under Free World control. The United States must gain and retain the uneasy and in many cases half-hearted allegiance of those countries in the Far East outside the Soviet Bloc. Certain past actions have not only failed to further U.S. interests but perhaps have hindered. For example:

a. There is a lack of logical coherence, discernible to the Asiatics who are presently friendly to the United Sates, or uncommitted to either side; and,
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