Averell Harriman: Chinese Reds Want U.S. Out of Western Pacific

Apr. 3, 1962 - W. Averell Harriman, Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs, told Congress today that the overriding objective of the Chinese Communists “is to eliminate the presence of the United States in the western Pacific.” “The hostility and frustrations of the Red Chinese are focused on the U.S. because they realize that we are the principal obstacle to the fulfillment of their plans for the conquest of Asia,” he said. Mr. Harriman, testifying in support of President Kennedy’s $4,900,000,000 foreign-aid program, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that Communist China now had 3 million men under arms.

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