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Washington's Taiwan Dilemma, 1949-1950 - From Abandonment to Salvation (Paperback)
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Washington's Taiwan Dilemma, 1949-1950 - From Abandonment to Salvation (Paperback)
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The declaration of the People’s Republic of China in October 1949
presented American foreign policy officials with two dilemmas: how
to deal with the communist government on the mainland and what to
do about Chiang Kai-shek’s holdout Nationalist regime on Taiwan.
By early 1950 these questions were pressing hard upon U.S. civilian
and military planners and policy makers, for it appeared that the
Red Army was preparing to invade the island. Most observers
believed that nothing short of American military intervention would
preclude a communist victory on Taiwan. How U.S. officials grappled
with the question of what to do about Taiwan is at the heart of
this study. Prior to the publication of this book, much of the
historical literature on this critical period in U.S. policy toward
China concentrated on the question of relations with the new regime
in Beijing. A focus on those debates has largely overshadowed the
concomitant policy debates that centred around the question of how
to deal with the Nationalist regime on Taiwan. As this study shows,
the two issues were inextricably linked and developing a Taiwan
policy was no less difficult or controversial. Heavily informed by
an analysis of declassified U.S. government documents and other
primary sources, this history strongly suggests that had North
Korea not invaded the south in June 1950 the U.S. would not have
intervened to save Chiang Kai-shek and Taiwan from near-certain
invasion. Beyond the narrative itself, this volume is also a case
study into the complex and sometimes messy processes by which
foreign policy is made. It explores the tensions that existed
within the Truman administration between the State Department and
various newly-created entities such as the Department of Defense,
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the National Security Council.
Indeed, the history of policymaking for China and Taiwan in 1949-50
is also a case study in the early development of the post-war
interagency system. It also underscores the tensions between the
Executive and Legislative branches in the development of foreign
policy. The study also brings to light little-discussed and often
uncomfortable issues in Taiwan history, some of which still have
relevance to politics on the island even today. These include the
legacies of the Japanese colonial experience, the post-war
Nationalist occupation, and the early stirrings of the
“Formosan” independence movement, to name just a couple. Today,
U.S. policy toward Taiwan remains a highly-charged and
fundamentally divisive issue in U.S.-China relations — especially
the security dimensions of that policy. And even today U.S. Taiwan
policy is still subject to partisan politics in Washington as well
as in Taipei. For those who still grapple with this issue, this
volume presents the roots of the dilemma and essential background
reading.
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