The Forgotten Army: Taiwan’s Attempt to Retake China Through Burma
Another war overshadowed by the western Cold War
As WWII ended, much of the world remained in chaos — not only because of the cataclysmic devastation brought by the conflict but also because the war had reshaped the structure of global power — setting in motion numerous changes that brought both hope and grave uncertainty.
At a great loss of blood and treasure, Fascism in Europe and Imperial Japan in Asia had been defeated. These expenditures on the part of the allies accelerated the break-up of old colonial regimes like the British Empire, the Dutch East Indies, and the French in Indochina. Many nations in Asia and Africa gained independence as the center of global power shifted from Europe and its old colonial powers to the US — more content to rule the world’s economic order than directly control territory.
At the same time, the end of the war signaled the dawn of a new conflict. The divergent intentions of the Soviet Union that had suffered more than all the other allies and instrumental in final victory, remained irreconcilable with the hoped-for new liberal order. Meanwhile, the Communist Party of China, which had risen to dominance in the Chinese Civil War that continued on after WWII, soon consolidated its power over the whole country.
