The U.S. State Department has broken ranks on China policy. Two sharply conflicting views are now struggling to prevail.
The diehards of the Far Eastern Division, led by Assistant Secretary for Far Eastern Affairs, W. Walton Butterworth (whose May appointment has not yet been confirmed in the Senate), will not budge from their static "wait-until-the-dust-settles" strategy. But a dissenting group, led by Director George Kennan, the Department's policy-planning troubleshooter, is demanding some attempt, however limited, to regain the initiative for the U.S. after its catastrophic failure in the Orient.
Kennan was indignant when State flatly and successfully opposed a Republican drive in Congress...