The Taiwan Straits Crisis – A Hair’s Breadth from
Annihilation
Sixty years have come and gone, but the sun has yet to set
on the Taiwan Straits Crisis. Stranded on the rocky island of secrecy amid the
storms of the Cold War (1947-1991), the mists of time should not be permitted
to veil the lessons that must be learned. In the U.S. during the early 1950s,
Eisenhower was in office, China was engaged in a civil war, the Soviets were
antsy, and the Air Force longed to hear the words ‘the pickle is hot’
indicating they were free to unload armaments. The only thing missing from the
high-tension plot was a bevy of brilliant beauties unless, of course, you
consider Madam Chiang Kai-shek and Hedy Lamar.
Like a fine dining experience, the Taiwan Straits crisis
unfolds in courses paired with the appropriate drink. In the late 1920s, China engaged
in a great civil war. Following the final gasp of the Qing Dynasty in 1917, China was an
unwieldy briar patch. From the political vacuum of swirling cultures and
societal chaos coupled with the sheer size of the country, two primary
competing forces emerged; Mao Tse-tung who would be at the helm of the Peoples’ Republic
of China (PRC) with a Communist agenda and Chiang Kai-Shek (ROC) who would
lead the forces that did not want communism.