Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
had been largely wiped out, and in December 1948 Beijing (then still
called Beiping) fell to the Communists.
Nanjing itself fell to the Communists in April 1949, and on October 1,
1949, Mao was confident enough in the Communists' ultimate victory
that he proclaimed in Beiping (now renamed Beijing) the liberation of
China and the founding of the new People's Republic of China to jubi-
lant throngs of celebrants in Tiananmen Square. He announced to
China and the world that China had stood up. Meanwhile, the rem-
nants of Chiang Kai-shek's corrupt government and discouraged mili-
tary fled to the island of Taiwan, where it has remained ever since.
THE KOREAN WAR
The Korean War came as a surprise to the new Chinese Communist
regime. The People's Republic of China on the mainland was initially
enthusiastic about extending its land reform program throughout the
rest of the country and “liberating” Taiwan by armed attack. The
Korean War, however, interrupted these plans and indirectly saved
Chiang Kai-shek's regime on Taiwan. Mao was initially content to let
Korea fight its own civil war, but when it became apparent that
General Douglas MacArthur, the American commanding general of
the United Nations forces defending southern Korea against northern
Korean aggression, quite possibly intended to invade China, Mao
decided to commit Chinese ground troops to the war.
At the end of World War II, Korea was divided at roughly the 38th
parallel, with a Soviet-backed Communist dictatorship north of it and
an undemocratic dictatorship backed by the United States to the south.
On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces launched a massive blitzkrieg-
style attack on the south and quickly overwhelmed it. Two days later,
a Security Council resolution passed at the United Nations condemned
North Korean aggression and decided to commit UN ground troops to
Korea. (The Soviet Union did not participate in this resolution because
it had boycotted the Security Council to protest the UN's refusal to seat
the new Communist Chinese regime's representatives on the Security
Council.) This same day, U.S. President Harry Truman ordered
elements of the U.S. Seventh Fleet into the Taiwan Strait to save Taiwan
from Communist attack. The United States has more or less been
committed to the defense of Taiwan ever since.
In September 1950 UN forces under MacArthur successfully
launched a daring surprise amphibious landing at Inchon on Korea's
west coast and quickly put the North Korean invaders to flight,
