Why the United States refused to interfere with the fall of the Kuomintang

Mondo History Updated on 2024-02-22

The success of World War II brought the United States to an unprecedented peak in its economic and military power on a global scale, successfully establishing itself as the hegemon of the capitalist world.

Since then, the United States has been pursuing a hegemonic policy on a global scale, backed by its own great strength, playing the role of a global policeman and intervening in the affairs of other countries and regions.

China is no exception. After the end of the Sino-Japanese War, the United States helped the Kuomintang to start a full-scale civil war. However, when the Kuomintang regime completely collapsed in 1949, the United States** did not choose to send troops to China to intervene, but ceded the mainland to the Chinese Communist Party.

U.S. policy toward China after World War II: Control of China, containment of the Soviet Union. The United States attempted to control China by propping up a puppet regime and supporting the Kuomintang to prevent the Soviet Union from moving south.

However, the course of history did not go as the United States wanted, and in the second half of 1948, the People's Liberation Army launched a strategic decisive battle, and the Kuomintang army suffered one defeat after another. At this time, important Kuomintang military and political officials visited the United States and the United Nations, begging the United States to send troops to intervene in China's civil war, in an attempt to internationalize China's civil war and avoid a complete collapse.

However, the United States did not intervene militarily in the end, but sat back and watched the collapse of the Kuomintang regime.

The vigorous development of the Chinese revolution caused the United States to abandon its plan to send troops. The morale of the Kuomintang army was low, the liberated areas were expanded, the masses supported the liberation war, and the United States** realized that armed intervention would arouse the anger of the Chinese people, so it decided to cancel the plan to send troops.

The Chinese Communist Party has fully estimated the possibility of the United States sending troops and has made strategic and tactical arrangements, which has made the United States somewhat afraid of sending troops to intervene.

Chiang Kai-shek, Roosevelt, and Churchill united, and the corruption of the Kuomintang regime was an important reason why the United States gave up sending troops. In 1949, the collapse of the Kuomintang regime triggered a strong reaction in the United States, and some people even accused the United States of "losing" China.

On August 5, 1949, the United States published a report entitled "Acknowledging China's Fall into the Hands of the Communists and Blaming the Kuomintang for the Defeat by Failing to Heed the Advice of Three American Generals, Leading to Military Defeat."

It pointed out that the Kuomintang army had lost its fighting spirit, lost the support of the people, and aid could not save the fate of the collapse of the Kuomintang regime.

With the growing power of socialism, especially the rise of the Soviet Union, the United States faced enormous challenges. During World War II, despite the severe damage suffered by the Soviet Union, post-war reconstruction and German reparations allowed the Soviet economy to recover quickly and possess a strong armed force and nuclear capabilities.

At the same time, the people's democracies of Eastern Europe were established one after another, forming a socialist camp with the Soviet Union as the core, providing a favorable international environment for the Chinese revolution.

Therefore, the United States had to take into account the existence of the Soviet Union, especially with regard to China, which was adjacent to the Soviet Union, when formulating its China policy. In the Yalta agreement, the Soviet Union enjoyed some privileges in the Northeast, and if the United States intervened in China, the Soviet Union could take advantage of the opportunity to lead to China's **, and control the Northeast region, increasing its power against the United States.

Although the United States did not want to see the collapse of the Chiang regime, due to the upsurge of national liberation movements in the colonies and semi-colonies after the war and the peace movements of other countries, the United States did not want to go to war with the Soviet Union immediately, but only hoped to maintain the post-war order and maintain good relations with the Soviet Union.

Therefore, a strong Soviet Union was an important factor that the United States had to consider when formulating its policy toward China.

Due to the diplomatic missteps of the Chiang regime, the feelings of the United States have been hurt. During the 1948 election campaign in the United States, the Republican Eisenhower was extremely loud, and in order to win the favor of the new one, the Kuomintang provided him with a large amount of campaign funds, which caused the dissatisfaction of Truman, a Democrat who came to power in early 1949.

This unwise behavior of the Kuomintang has more or less affected the support of the United States for it. To sum up, in 1949, after weighing the pros and cons, the United States did not take action to send troops, but ordered the evacuation of overseas Chinese and the marines stationed in Chinese ports on the high seas.

This move by the United States undoubtedly hastened the collapse of the Kuomintang. However, the United States did not abandon its hostile attitude and adopted a policy of diplomatic isolation and economic blockade against New China, pinning its hopes on it"China's democratic individualists", which is also known as the Chinese style"Fifth column"。

At present, the United States has always regarded China as a great challenge, even the main threat. This point of view can be proved from various sources such as the "Selected Military Writings" and the "Selected Materials on the History of China's Modern Foreign Relations".

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