| This dissertation traces the evolution of United States policy toward Taiwan from January 1949 until the outbreak of the war in Korea in June 1950. It details Washington's efforts to save the island from a communist invasion. It argues, however, that the military and political constraints that policy makers placed upon ways to achieve that goal resulted, by January 1950, in the decision to write off the island. At that time Chiang Kai-shek was abandoned to save Taiwan through his own efforts. Had the war in Korea not erupted in June 1950, the United States would not have intervened with military force to neutralize Taiwan.; This study relies almost exclusively upon declassified government documents. It exploits the records of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the records of the National Security Council, State Department cables and memoranda, and the personal papers of such critical decision makers as President Truman, Dean Acheson, Douglas MacArthur, various State Department officials, and prominent pro-Nationalist Congressmen.; The dissertation offers a detailed analysis of State's "Titoist" policy toward Peking, the linkage of Taiwan policy to larger goals in East Asia, and places this policy dilemma within the greater context of the Cold War with the Soviet Union and the domestic political environment then prevailing in the United States. It offers as well an inner history of the Truman administration. It examines the men who made the policies; Dean Acheson, Dean Rusk, George Kennan, Walton Butterworth, Louis Johnson and the State Department "China Hands." It details the intellectual baggage these men brought to their positions, their professional experiences, their personal animosities, and their bureaucratic struggles to develop a viable policy toward Taiwan. Moreover, this study presents an examination of the intelligence, raw and finished, upon which these men acted. Finally, this study offers a detailed look at prevailing conditions on Taiwan from 1945 to 1950. In effect, it is also a history of the very shaky beginnings of a nation which today is an economic powerhouse in Asia. |
