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 TOP SECRET

1. The primary problem of U. S. policy in the Far East is to cope with the serious threat to U. S. security interests which has resulted from the spread of hostile Communist power on the continent of Asia over all of Mainland China, North Korea and, more recently, over the northern part of Viet Nam.

2. In its five years of power, the regime in Communist China has established and consolidated effective control over the mainland and has maintained and developed close working relations with the Soviet Union. While there is now no reason to anticipate an early collapse of the regime nor any means of seeing when one might occur, inherently such regimes have elements of rigidity and instability which sometimes produce crises. We should be ready to exploit any opportunities which might occur as a result of inherent internal weaknesses. Rh