Lord Tammerlain, should you have some time for interesting reading, I invite you to look into Madam Chiang Kai-shek, specifically her relationship to Wendell Willkie. Wendell Willkie was the Republican candidate against Roosevelt in 1940. Roosevelt appointed him his roving ambassador later on for places like China. During his time in China, he and Madam Chiang had a fling, which almost got him shot by her husband, the KMT leader. Madam Chiang had an extremely profound impact on the evolution of current affairs as we know it now on Taiwan. Being from one of the noble families of China, her line went back over 300 years. She moved to New York in the middle of the war with the Japanese to be near to Wendell Willkie, who she told, according to his friend, Gardner Cowles, the founder of Look magazine, together they could rule the world. He would control the West, while she controlled China. She would use all of her resources to fund his 1944 campaign against Roosevelt. Unfortunately, Wendell died before the next election. She truly was a gem, and even had the hots for General Joseph Stilwell, the commander of American forces in the China, India and Burma Theater of Operations, and who her husband loathed. Whenever "Vinegar" Joe would come around, she was determined to be there for a picture locking arms and smiling. Stilwell would have none of it. She was, as General Stilwell noted, in Barbara Tuchman's biography of his time in China, "The shell on that peanut." Peanut was the derogatory term Stilwell would use when referring to Chiang Kai-Shek. Stilwell added, Chiang did not care for fighting the Japanese, and wanted instead to squander resources given to him as aid to fight Mao and the communists. Now, what does all this have to do with Taiwan. Lots. When discussions later came up after the war about the battle for control of the country between the KMT and the communists, Stilwell and others were instrumental in influencing the discussion. Stilwell did not believe the US should take a side, actually believing that a China not in constant turmoil would be best. The end of that turmoil would be the communists, because Stilwell thought Chiang couldn't run a soup kitchen. State Department thinking would follow that line. After the KMT evacuated from its last stronghold in the city of Taizhou, which at that time was a small fishing village, I believe called, He He, and fled to Taiwan, Madam Chiang spent a lot of time in New York in the socialite scene there. More than her husband, she was the one that cultivated the slow development of the relationship that exists now with Taiwan. She was good. Educated in the US, she spoke fluent English with a slight southern accent, and was a good looking woman to her last day. The KMT still carries her slogan as its mantra in Taiwan, called the 3 Nots. "Not Reunification, Not Independence, Not War." I guess you could say, a modern day version of, "having your cake and eating it, too." She died in New York I believe in 2003.
People just think this issue popped up yesterday, when this all has a lot of history. And it sure is interesting, and a little erotic. Funny thing is, not a single mention about Stilwell anywhere in Taiwan. No monuments, markers, nothing. But in Chongqing (Chungking), the communist government has maintained his house, headquarters, vehicles and dress uniform as something of a shrine. General George Marshall, the Army Chief of Staff, is quoted as of saying he was the model of a general officer that all should follow. All that we are encountering today is the result of a slow reversal in what was set in motion decades ago by better men than we have leading our country today.
