Defiant issue: Cold War influence on United States Taiwan policy, 1945 to 1952

This study traces the early evolution of the Cold War through an examination of American policy toward China and Taiwan. It demonstrates that from 1945 through 1952 United States Taiwan policy was a complex interplay between Cold War influences and practical realities, and that fundamental policy principles ultimately lay more in Soviet-American relations--communist containment--than in considerations for the island itself.; After failing to insure non-communist dominance in post-World War II China, Truman administration attempts to disengage from Chinese affairs were frustrated by forces advocating rigid application of containment principles. With the Nationalists' defeat, and their government's evacuation to Taiwan, American policy emphasis switched to the island. As the Cold War intensified, pressures for intervening to save Taiwan from an expected Chinese Communist invasion may have been on the verge of success when the Korean War erupted and President Truman interposed the United States 7th Fleet to protect the island from attack during the Korean crisis.; Thereafter, despite resistance by the President and his Secretary of State, forces advocating indefinite protection of the island gradually prevailed. Anti-communist ideals had overwhelmed practical policy.