War & Peace-The Cold War

The Chinese Revolution

 

·          U.S goals in the Far East during WWII were the defeat of Japan and the sustenance of the government of Nationalist China.

·          Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalist Government were incapable of ruling China in the post war period.

·          The base of Chiang Kai-shek’s support was among the feudal property owners, landlords.  He ignored peasant demands for reform while concentrating upon sustaining his hold on power.

·          The Chinese Communists, led by Mao Zedong enjoyed popular support among the peasantry, by far the largest and most important constituency in China.

·          The Chinese Civil War had waged on since the 1920’s and the communists had consolidated their control of vast areas during the war against Japan.

·          Chiang Kai-shek and his Nationalists fled to Taiwan in 1949 recognizing the victory of Mao Zedong’s forces in the Chinese Civil War.

·          Careful analysis leads to the conclusion that the United States could not have prevented a communist takeover in China at any cost acceptable to the American people.

·          Truman’s Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, saw the possibility of reaching out to China despite the communist character of the PRC government.

·          The traditional relationship between China and Russia was one of enmity, not friendship.  Stalin and Mao neither liked nor trusted one another.

·          The outbreak of war in Korea precluded a Sino-American relationship that would have driven a wedge between the Soviet Union and China.

·          President Richard Nixon finally achieved this goal in 1972 despite Chinese/American differences over Vietnam