Decisional opportunity and political controversy: the Quemoy case.

The article the discusses crisis control, foreign policy and the opposition's behavior toward administration during the Quemoy crisis in Taiwan in 1958. Information on Quemoy's framework of action is presented. The administration and the opposition were in conflict with each other on what was going on in the Taiwan Straits because of policy differences. The major criticisms of the administration's action in the 1958 crisis focus on two issues. First, the administration has acquired undue power in deciding the question of war and peace. Second, the closely related conviction of the opposition that major risks of war were being run in the wrong place, the wrong time and the wrong issue. The trajectory of the administration's crisis behavior is explained.