On
<Reference Materials>
Issue No. 3590
(May 12,
1960)
Please ask the Premier to take a look at page 45, the U.S. President’s remarks 1 11 , very important.
Mao Zedong
May 12
Chuan


An article carried on page 45 of Issue No. 3590 of Reference Materials, compiled and printed by the New China News Agency on May 12, 1960, titled "USIS Reports on Eisenhower’s May 11 Press Conference," states that U.S. President Eisenhower issued a statement at a press conference on May 11, consisting of four points:


1. The necessity of intelligence-gathering activities;


2. The nature of intelligence-gathering activities;


3. How we should view all these activities;


4. We must never allow a single incident or a symptom of today’s world situation to divert our attention from the real issues of the present era. This statement mainly uses the incident of the U.S. plane intruding into Soviet airspace and being shot down to launch a counterattack against the Soviet Union, advocating that such provocations are "indispensable" to prevent "surprise attack" and out of a "desire to avoid another Pearl Harbor," and seizing the opportunity to indicate that at the summit conference it would once again trot out the "Open Skies" plan for U.S. intelligence gathering; belittling the power of Soviet rockets, claiming the U.S. plane was not shot down at high altitude, falsely alleging that the photos of the plane wreckage released by the Soviet Union are fake; shirking its own responsibility, stating that government agencies do not directly participate in intelligence-gathering activities; counter-slandering the Soviet Union for also engaging in espionage activities; striving to minimize the impact of the plane provocation incident, saying that one should not thereby "divert attention from the real issues of the present era," expressing no change in the plan to visit the Soviet Union; once again clamoring that the President has the right to decide whether the United States will "defend" Jinmen and Mazu, demanding that the next President continue the policy of hostility toward China, and that the question of whether to withdraw from Jinmen and Mazu must be carefully "considered."