Editing 79-04-A3 (section)

=== Transcript ===
Defense department officials, including Secretary Brown, have told the Senate
Foreign Relations committee that the Taiwan could survive any concerted attack
by the Peoples Republic of China, so that it's unlikely there would be such an
attack for years and years to come, if ever. But, there has been other testimony
which was unreported by such papers as the New York TIMES and the Washington POST
testimony to that same Foreign Relations committee. Fortunately, the Washington weekly
called HUMAN EVENTS has written about that testimony.

Vice Admiral Edwin K. Snyder, US Navy retired, told the Senate committee that
Taiwan's defenses would have to undergo a vast modernization program to successfully
withstand a sustained assault from the mainland, and it would seem that Admiral
Snyder's opinion would carry some weight with the Senators. From August, 1974 to
August, 1977 he was commander of the US Taiwan Defense command. He was responsible
to the Joint Chiefs of Staff for contingency planning for the defense of the
Republic of China including Taiwan and the Pescadores Islands.

Just giving Taiwan the weapons presently in the pipeline won't be enough. The
Admiral says the ROC wouldn't have a chance if it didn't get such all-weather fighter
planes such as the F-16 , Harpoon missiles to stand-off the Communist Chinese navy,
and special anti-submarine equipment. All of this is equipment our Seventh fleet
would have provided under the mutual defense treaty we are now scrapping.

The admiral further says that without our carrier planes the Taiwan air force
would be neutralized within two or three weeks. The Communist navy would pit patrol
boats and modern destroyers (both armed with surface-to-surface missiles) against
20-odd World War II destroyers armed with five-inch guns. And the greatest threat
is the Communist Chinese submarine force -- almost double the number we have in our
whole Pacific fleet.

Admiral Snyder believes that the island republic's lines of supply and
communications could be disrupted in fairly short order. His message is clear; if
Congress fails to make certain that Taiwan receives advanced weaponry, the free
Republic of China could fall to the Communists. But is the Senate listening? 

This is Ronald Reagan.

Thanks for listening.
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