>"What non-violent activists only learned a decade later was that the
>campaign played a significant, perhaps even determining role in
>preventing nuclear war.

FALSE......This rice protest is an Urban Legend
The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/rice.asp
We have checked summaries of discussion and memoranda of conversation
for various meetings Eisenhower had with military advisers and the
National Security Council and have found no references to the bags of
wheat or food for China campaign. There is no documentation in our
files to support the story that the bags of wheat influenced
Eisenhower's decisions during the Formosa Straits crisis. The
documents reveal that Eisenhower made his decisions based on his
understanding of the strategic and diplomatic considerations as well
as on intelligence reports and military options. An account of
Eisenhower's handling of the Formosa Straits crises can be found in
the book, Eisenhower: The President by Stephen E. Ambrose (Simon and
Schuster, 1984).



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