Comments on: Chiang Kai-shek thought he had 500 airplanes

By: Altitude Zero

Altitude Zero — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 23:40:27 +0000

Yeah, the White Terror was bad, very bad, about 5,000 people were killed over the 38 years that it lasted. But by comparison, Mao ruled China for about 27 years, and in that time was responsible for around 55 million deaths, which means that, on average, he killed about that many every day. Yeah, yeah, I know, most of them starved in the Great Leap Forward, and he had a much larger population to work with, but still. Frank Dikotter’s book “The Age of Openness” does a good job dispelling many of the myths about Nationalist China, although he’s not anything like a Chiang apologist.

By: Harry Jones

Harry Jones — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 15:04:42 +0000

Rehabilitate CKS? There are still many alive who remember the White Terror. But when the gongfei land, they’ll put all that in perspective.

Tsai will be remembered as that nice little old lady who wasn’t a lot of use when it mattered. Weak people need a strong leader. Strong people prefer a leader who can keep up with them, or else no leader at all. Only stupid people want a weak leader.

MacArthur wanted Taiwanese troops in Korea. We’ll never know if that would have been a good idea.

By: Altitude Zero

Altitude Zero — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 13:24:58 +0000

Stillwell and the State Department hated Chiang, and did a lot to blacken his reputation, but “Cash My Check” held off millions of Japanese troops, while the Communists did essentially nothing, and Stillwell did little but gripe and play politics. Chiang had lots of faults, but he’s due for a rehabilitation. He was, at any rate, a lot better than what came after…

By: Redan

Redan — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 12:48:10 +0000

“Chiang wanted American air power far more than American ground forces or advisors.”

What Chiang wanted most of all was Yankee dollars, as indicated by his ‘Cash My Check’ nickname.

https://www.google.com/search?q=cash+my+check+chiang+kai+shek&rlz=1C1GCEU_enUS943US943&oq=cash+my+check+chiang+kai+shek&aqs=chrome..69i57.12975j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8