It was New Year's Eve, and the eighteen American officials who had hurriedly gathered in the State Department Operations Room on 31 December 1970, were still sharply divided after four hours of discussion.¹ The issue was what, if anything, the Seventh Fleet should do in the event of Chinese naval action against the U.S. seismic survey vessels then beginning to explore for oil in disputed waters of the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, and the Yellow Sea.
