U.S. Foreign Policy Milestones in the Region (1950-1978)

1950

• Mar. 1: President Chiang Kai-shek resumed the presidency in Taipei.

1951

• Apr. 21: The U.S. announced its assignment of the military assistance advisory group (MAAG) to Taiwan.

1953

• Feb. 3: President Eisenhower announced the deneutralization of the Taiwan Strait.

1954

• Dec. 2: The Sino-American Mutual Defense Treaty was signed in Washington.

1956

• Mar. 16: U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles visited Taipei.

1958

• Oct. 23: President Chiang and U.S. Secretary of State Dulles issued a joint communique reaffirming solidarity and stating that Kinmen and Matsu islands were closely related to the defense of Taiwan under present conditions.

1960

• June 18-19: President Eisenhower visited Taipei.
• Dec. 1: The first atomic reactor under U.S. assistance installed in the National Tsing Hua University at Hsinchu.

1961

• Mar. 14: U.S. Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson visited Taipei.

1963

• Sep. 1: The Council for International Economic Cooperation and Development (CIECD) was inaugurated to replace the Council for U.S. Aid in Taipei.

1965

• Apr. 9: The U.S. and China concluded in Taipei an accord to establish a Sino-American fund for economic and social development in Taiwan.
• July 1: The U.S. phased out economic aid to Taiwan.

1966

• Jan. 1: U.S. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey visited Taipei.

1969

• Aug. 1-2: U.S. Secretary of State William P. Rogers visited Taipei.

1970

• Jan. 2 and Aug. 26: Vice President Spiro T. Agnew visited Taipei.

1971

• July 9 - 11: President Nixon's Assistant for National Security Affairs Henry Kissinger and Premier Chou En-lai held talks in Peking.
• July 14: Memorandum to President Nixon: Henry Kissinger: "PDF: My talks with Chou En-lai."
• Oct. 20 - 25: Henry Kissinger visited Peking to arrange the agenda and itinerary to Nixon's forthcoming trip to Communist China.
• Oct. 25: U.N. voted to admit Communist China, expel Nationalist delegates. (Resolution 2758). (PDF Format: Roll call votes).

1972

• Feb. 20-27: President Nixon arrived in mainland China for an eight-day visit, which he called a "journey for peace." A joint communique issued in Shanghai pledged that both parties would work for a normalization of relations.

1973

• May 14: Liaison offices were opened in Washington and Beijing. David K.E. Bruce was the first director in Beijing.

1974

• October 21: George Bush was the head of Liaison Office in Beijing.

1976

• May 6: Thomas S. Gates, Jr. entered on duty as Director of Liaison Office in Beijing.
• Dec. 8: American business leaders formed a U.S.-R.O.C. Economic Council in Chicago.

1978

• Dec. 15: Joint communiques issued in Washington and Beijing announce establishment of US-PRC diplomatic relations and termination of US-ROC ties and Mutual Defense Treaty.
• Dec. 22: Sen. Barry Goldwater and 14 other legislators file suit in US District Court to prevent termination of ROC Mutual Defense Treaty.
• Dec. 27-28: U.S. delegation, led by Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher, confers in Taipei on future ROC-US relations.