ROC Foreign Minister George Yeh, 1904-1981

George Yeh Yeh Kung Ch’ao 1904 - 1981 It was such a beautiful summer day in San Francisco. A dream-like exhibit of the former foreign minister Yeh Gongchao (George Yeh)’s family collection of art in San Francisco's Asian Art Museum. It displayed most importantly the love exudes in the Yeh family, mutual friends, and family members all well versed, whether they are poems on the silk scrolls, or Ming Dynasty general Qi Qi Guang’s powerful writings, orchid, bamboo, rocks are in the minds of the intellectuals, statesmen, and aspirations for a nation and its people. Cultivation and art connoisseur runs deep in the family. He was house-arrested after 1961 by Chiang Kai-shek. From 1950 to 1958, he served as the ROC foreign minister, and from 1958 to 1961 he was the ambassador to the United States. We must credit to this man because he served at a time when dangerous wars and confrontations occurred, and he helped to wisely defuse the possible breakout of killings. It didn’t escalate into war and the animosity was deterred. There is a photo of him with Kennedy in 1961 or 1962. Kennedy also avoided war in Vietnam from the assessment, whereas his 2 years later, counterpart Johnson in 1965 was unable to. When we look back at history, we give calm thinking on these men and capable to distinguish the wheat from the chaff, and understand the mighty efforts from so quiet temperament, and not succumb to political rhetoric by tactless ambitions.