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March 26, 1965

Palestine Delegation in Peking

Formed in 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was not the first Palestinian organization after the nakba (catastrophe), the escape from violence and the Israeli expulsion of a good half of Palestinians in 1948. The two most important earlier organizations were Harakat al-Qawmiyyin al-‘Arab (Arab Nationalists Movement [ANM]) and Harakat al-Tahrir al-Watani al-Filastini (Palestinian National Liberation Movement [Fatah]).

Founded in 1951 in Beirut, ANM became committed to Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970) and his version of pan-Arab nationalism, which it saw as the means to liberate Palestine, opening a separate Palestinian branch in 1959. (In 1967, it would give rise to the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), which split in 1968, one wing forming the Popular Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PDFLP)).

Rejecting Arab states’ tutelage, Fatah was officially born in 1959, though organizational activities began in 1956 and though it built on military cells operating from Egyptian-ruled Gaza from the early 1950s. After Arab armies’ crushing loss against Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 killed any remaining hopes, weakened since the early 1960s, that Arab armies would liberate Palestine, Fatah grew in strength. In 1969, it took command of the PLO. The latter had been founded in 1964 for several reasons. Nasser hoped to weaken Fatah and Syria, a state then in competition with him. Also, the PLO served (upper) middle class Palestinians some of whom—like Ahmad al-Shuqayri (1908-1908), Palestine’s representative to the Arab League and the PLO’s founder and first chairman—had played a Palestinian political role until 1948 and wished to do so again. And these men and women believed Palestinians needed their own statist entity, as Yezid Sayigh’s monumental Armed Struggle and the Search for State: The Palestinian National Movement, 1949-1993 (1997) notes.

In 1965, PLO delegates led by Shuqayri for the first time visited the People’s Republic of China (PRC), as reported in the English issue of the multi-language international organ Peking Review. Already in 1964 a small Fatah delegation led by Yassir Arafat (1929-2004) had accepted an invitation to visit Beijing, founding an office there. Sure, upon its establishment in 1949 the PRC had de jure recognized Israel, following the lead of the Soviet Union that acted as its older brother in the communist camp. (Israel in turn was the first Middle Eastern state to recognize the PRC, in 1950.) But after the PRC and the USSR split in 1960, Beijing amplified its anti-imperialist rhetoric and policies versus the Soviet Union and the United States, as Gregg Brazinksy’s Winning the Third World: Sino-American Rivalry during the Cold War (2017) has shown. It was in this context that it from the mid-1960s delivered arms especially to Fatah and the PLO—it soon also would train fighters—and that it politically embraced the Palestinian cause. The PRC framed this policy as that of one “revolutionary people” helping another one, a story strand in Paul Chamberlin’s The Global Offensive: The United States, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and the Making of the Post-Cold War Order (2012). By the early 1970s, however, Chinese support became more lukewarm. Moreover, after the death of Chairman Mao Zedong (1893-1976), relations with Israel cautiously warmed, though remaining surreptitious until the establishment of full diplomatic ties in 1992.

October 19, 1964

J.S. Mehta, 'China's Bomb and Its Consequences on her Nuclear and Political Strategy'

Analysis of the recent Chinese nuclear weapon test and it's strategic implications for China's diplomatic and military policies.

January 9, 1966

Secret Letter from the Indian Embassy in Beijing to the Foreign Secretary in New Delhi, No. PEK/104/66, 'China and the West'

The Indian Embassy in Beijing sent a letter to the Indian Foreign Secretary to prove an analysis of Chinese foreign policy, such as Beijing's relationship with the West and the impact of Sino-Soviet split on Chinese foreign relations.

August 10, 1945

Record of a Meeting Between T.V. Soong and Stalin

T.V. Soong, Stalin, and others discuss the status of the war with Japan, the borders of Inner and Outer Mongolia, and the right of Soviet use of Manchurian railroads.

July 9, 1945

Record of a Meeting Between T. V. Soong and Stalin

Dr. Soong reports Chiang Kai-Shek's response to the stalemate on the question of Outer Mongolia to Stalin and Molotov. Chiang insists on preserving the territorial integrity of China vis a vis Outer Mongolia and Manchuria, and that China's sovereignty in Manchuria should be reinforced by Chinese administration of Port Arthur and Dairen. Stalin asks to think over his decision before responding to Chiang.

December 23, 1954

Letter, Willard B. Cowles to UN Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold

Willard Cowles forwards documents concerning the mission of a B-29 of the 581st Air Resupply And Communications Wing shot down during the Korean War. The Chinese claimed the plane was over Chinese territory on an espionage mission, which the United Nations denied.

1954

Freedom to Non-Repatriated Prisoners of War

This note warns that the communists will try to convince the world that these “freed” prisoners are not really freed and during this processing and resettlement period the world will be watching the Republic of Korea and the Republic of China's actions.

1954

The POW Scandal in Korea

According to A.B Carey, one of the lessons learned from fighting the Kremlin and its “communism” ideology is evidently seen amongst the Korean and Chinese prisoners of war. Both groups of POW not only disapprove of the communism but would also actively fight against it if they had the opportunity. Carey uses ten ideas which denounce the Kremlin as the one responsible for the lies and bellicosities during the Cold War. He also proceeds to demonstrate ways the free world can defeat this communist caucus.

May 21, 1979

Notes on a Meeting in Seoul on 5 May 1979, 10:30 – 12:30 AM

Kurt Waldheim and Park Chung Hee discuss the Secretary General's recent trip to Pyongyang and conversation with Kim Il Sung, as well as the possibilities for dialogue between North Korea, South Korea, and the United States.

April 15, 1954

Protocol for the Phased Withdrawal of Troops (First Draft)

A first draft of the proposal to withdraw United Nations Command and Chinese People's Volunteers troops from southern and northern Korea respectively. The protocol also outlines a schedule for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from the Korean peninsula.

Pagination