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In 1957, the late well-known economist Alexander Eckstein who was sent from the United States to Taiwan to investigate academic conditions there, reported that Taiwan was a "cultural desert". Eckstein's view was shared by many Chinese scholars. But Eckstein's report was made 27 years ago. Taiwan is no longer a cultural desert. The United States and the Republic of China have had a history of more than 20 years of fruitful academic cooperation. In this paper we treat a number of themes which contributed to Taiwan's evolving from that cultural desert: 1) The establishment of the Chinese National Science Council under the support of the American Agency for International Development. 2) The financial assistance of U. S. private foundations to R.O.C. academic circles. 3) Sino-American cooperation which helped scientific and technological development in Taiwan. 4)The returned students who helped to build up academic standard in Taiwan; and. 5) Finally, an overview of American academic influence in Taiwan. This paper was originally delivered at the Conference on US-ROC Relations: From the White Paper to the Taiwan Relations Act (Sept. 23-24, 1983) held by St. John's University in New York, and published by the American Asian Review to which those who are interested may refer to for the original English text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]