Taiwan is donating US$1 million to help build a Washington memorial to former US president Dwight Eisenhower.
“The donation will be given in grateful recognition of president Eisenhower’s staunch support for Taiwan’s security,” the Eisenhower Memorial Commission said.
US federal approval for the memorial was granted earlier this month after years — the project was first authorized in 1999 — of bitter argument about just what form it should take.
Photo: AP
Members of Eisenhower’s family, including his two granddaughters, have objected to various designs submitted by famed Los Angeles architect Frank Gehry.
However, the National Capital Planning Commission on Thursday last week gave final approval to one of Gehry’s modified designs.
While arguments surrounding the memorial have been complex and often waged behind closed doors, it seems that members of the Eisenhower family would prefer a traditional memorial similar to those designed to honor other former presidents.
Gehry has designed a very modern and contemporary structure that includes stainless steel “tapestries” to represent Kansas, where the Texas-born US Army general, supreme commander of Allied Forces in Europe during World War II and 34th president was raised.
The project is expected to cost US$142 million and organizers are hoping to collect at least US$20 million from private sources before going to the US Congress for the rest of the funding.
“This year, which marks the 70th anniversary of the conclusion of the second World War, is a fitting occasion to commemorate the many accomplishments of president Eisenhower,” Representative to the US Shen Lyu-shun (沈呂巡) said.
“Eisenhower holds a very special place in the hearts of the people of Taiwan,” he said.
According to Washington’s Cold War Museum, shortly after becoming president in January 1953, Eisenhower — in response to the end of the Korean War — lifted the US naval blockade of Taiwan meant to prevent hostilities between the island and China.
However, as tensions between Beijing and Taipei grew, Eisenhower and the US Congress enacted the Formosa Resolution in January 1955. The legislation pledged that the US would defend Taiwan in the case of a communist invasion and resulted in a series of indirect negotiations between the US and China that ended a crisis in the Taiwan Strait.
A 1.6-hectare site has been set aside for the memorial on Independence Avenue in southwest Washington, close to the National Mall and the US Capitol building.
“As the memorial to this great man moves toward the final federal approvals required to begin construction, we are appreciative that donors are coming forth and expressing support,” said Senator Pat Roberts, one of Kansas’ two senators and the chairman of Eisenhower Memorial Commission.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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