reply to post by alienstar
Sorry I don’t see the United States being provoked by any nation remember. Back 3 years ago, someone in the Pentagon stating we would go to war over
interest in protecting Taiwan.
The US 7th Fleet has been the watchdog for Taiwan since 1949. It is the largest of the forward-deployed U.S. fleets, with 50–60 ships, 350 aircraft
and 60,000 Navy and Marine Corps personnel. The two major military scenarios in which the Seventh Fleet would be used would be in case of conflict in
Korea or a conflict between People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan) in the Taiwan Strait.
en.wikipedia.org...
As 1949 drew to a close, the famous Eighth Route Army of Mao Zedong and leader of the CCP - Chinese Communist Party - was about to triumph over their
long-time foe, the Nationalists led by Chang Kai-shek, successor to Sun Yat Sen and head of the KMT - Kuomintang Party.
Under the protection of the US Seventh Fleet, the Nationalists fled to Formosa - Portugese for beautiful island - which had been occupied by Japan
from 1895 to 1945. The islanders were both pacifists and unarmed. Native Formosans were neither PRO communists nor ANTI nationalists. Much like the
Palestinian Arabs the prior year (1948), forces outside their control were irrevocably changing their lives. And similarly, without prior consultation
of the effected people. Ah but such is life.
See Note 1.
The Korean War began on June 25, 1950. Barely 8 months after the PLA - People’s Liberation Army - had decisively defeated the Nationalists. When
the UN Forces under Gen. MacArthur pushed the North Koreans out of South Korea and up to the Yalu River, the Chinese warned the US at least 3 times
NOT to come closer to their border than 50 kilometers or some say, 25 miles.
The UN Forces ignored those warnings. There are pictures of US soldiers dipping their feet into the Yalu River. Gen. MacArthur wanted to attack China
and to bring Nationalists soldiers up from Taiwan to enter the fight to expel the Communists from China. Gen. MacArthur intended to rely on US using
nuclear bombs to assure our victory over the Chinese and the restoration of Chafing Kai-shek to power. President Truman fired Gen. MacArthur for his
willful failure to follow orders.
Epilogue. Taiwan Nationalists reconcile with China
Beijing: April 30, 2005. Hu Jintao, the Chinese president and Lien Chan, the leader of the
opposition Nationalist Party in Taiwan, formally
ended decades of hostility with a nationally televised handshake Friday and pledged to work together to undermine Taiwan's independence movement.
The last time the leader of the Nationalists met the leader of the Communists was in 1945 in the wartime redoubt of Chongqing, when Chiang Kai-shek
and Mao Zedong made a final, failed bid to reach a cease-fire.
Note 1. Right of determination.
Charter of the United Nations, Preamble
Article 1. The Purposes of the United Nations are: Section. 2. To develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal
rights and self-determination of peoples, and to take other appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace . . “