One of the most momentous stories of the last century is China's rise from a self-satisfied, anti-modern, decaying society into a global power that promises to one day rival the United States. Chiang Kai-shek, an autocratic, larger-than-life figure, dominates this story. A modernist as well as a neo-Confucianist, Chiang was a man of war who led the most ancient and populous country in the world through a quarter century of bloody revolutions, civil conflict, and wars of resistance against Japanese aggression.
In 1949, when he was defeated by Mao Zedong—his archrival for leadership of China—he fled to Taiwan, where he ruled for another twenty-five years. Playing a key role in the cold war with China, Chiang suppressed opposition with his "white terror," controlled inflation and corruption, carried out land reform, and raised personal income, health, and educational levels on the island. Consciously or not, he set the stage for Taiwan's evolution of a Chinese model of democratic modernization.
Drawing heavily on Chinese sources including Chiang's diaries, The Generalissimo provides the most lively, sweeping, and objective biography yet of a man whose length of uninterrupted, active engagement at the highest levels in the march of history is excelled by few, if any, in modern history. Jay Taylor shows a man who was exceedingly ruthless and temperamental but who was also courageous and conscientious in matters of state. Revealing fascinating aspects of Chiang's life, Taylor provides penetrating insight into the dynamics of the past that lie behind the struggle for modernity of mainland China and its relationship with Taiwan.
eBook - ePub
The Generalissimo
Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China, With a New Postscript
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eBook - ePub
The Generalissimo
Chiang Kai-shek and the Struggle for Modern China, With a New Postscript
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Index
Academy of Revolutionary Study and Practice (Taiwan), 442
Acheson, Dean: and Chiang, 426, 450, 452, 470; and China policy, 354–355; and Korean War, 435, 447, 449; on loss of China, 424–425; and MacArthur, 438, 444; and peace treaty with Japan, 451; and Quemoy and Matsu, 472; as Secretary of State, 424–425, 668n126; on Sino-Soviet bloc, 506; on Taiwan independence, 403, 404, 510; and Taiwan policy, 417–418, 420, 421, 433, 434–435, 437, 441, 446, 459, 462, 574; and U.N., 475
Aeronautics Commission, 212
Africa, 211, 482, 483, 486, 489, 511
African Americans, 309
Agnew, Spiro, 554, 555
Air Force, Japanese, 663n4
Air Force, Nationalist, 149–150, 156, 219–220, 229; on Taiwan, 415, 430; U.S. support for, 179, 211, 212, 216, 226, 227, 233
Air Force, PLA, 429, 430, 431, 446
Air Force, U.S., 211, 235, 439, 446; 14th, 205, 228, 231, 234, 267, 270–273, 281, 306, 311, 657n101. See also Flying Tigers
Air India bombing (1955), 482–483
air power: in Burma, 225, 226, 261, 262, 270; and Chennault, 218, 219–220, 230, 272, 297; Chiang on, 243; in Civil War, 380, 381, 385, 386; at Hengyang, 281–282; and Stilwell, 228, 291; as strategy, 230–232, 235; and U.S. aid, 227, 230; in War of Resistance, 269, 272
Alanbrooke, Lord, 245–246
Alexander, Harold, 199, 203, 204, 207, 225
Allies (World War II), 178, 225; and Burma, 206, 287; and Chiang, 3, 8, 190; and China, 189, 193, 235; colonies of, 195–196; and Pearl Harbor, 188. See also Britain; France; United ...
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Maps
- Acknowledgments
- Note on Romanization
- Prologue
- I Revolution
- II War of Resistance
- III Civil War
- IV The Island
- Epilogue
- Postscript to the Paperback Edition
- Notes
- Index
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