Chapter 13
Truman’s Delusion of Kuomintang–Communist Cooperation

IV. America Enabled the “Hundred-Year Marathon”

After the end of World War II, U.S.-Soviet collusion came to an end. Faced with the expansion of communist influence, the United States was forced to adopt a containment strategy against the Soviet Union. However, President Truman failed to adjust his China policy in time to reflect the postwar global realignment. Strangely, Truman applied two contradictory strategies across Eurasia:

In China, he refused to oppose communism and instead demanded that the Republic of China form a coalition government with the Chinese Communist Party — a laughable proposition.

Yet in Europe, faced with potential crises in Greece and Turkey, he announced the Truman Doctrine, which vowed unwavering U.S. support for any government (regardless of democratic legitimacy) and any people resisting armed communist insurgencies. But when it came to China, he absurdly argued that this doctrine did not apply — so much so that, when the Truman Doctrine was formally introduced in 1947, the phrase “in all parts of the world” was deliberately removed. This preferential treatment, inconsistency, and self-contradiction in Truman’s foreign policy was yet another strategic blunder following Roosevelt’s betrayal at Yalta.

It revealed that both Roosevelt and Truman, as descendants of colonialist white supremacists, harbored racial prejudice in their policymaking.

But karma would not be denied — Truman was the one who knocked over the first domino in the catastrophic reversal of U.S.-China relations, setting in motion the strategic framework for the so-called “Hundred-Year Marathon.”

After the fall of mainland China, Truman’s racist administration continued to make error after error. First, the U.S. withdrew troops from Korea and rejected the Republic of Korea’s request to form a military alliance. In January 1950, Secretary of State Dean Acheson publicly declared that the United States’ Pacific defense perimeter — known as the Acheson Line — included only a chain of islands stretching from the Aleutians to Japan, Okinawa, and the Philippines, explicitly excluding both Taiwan and the Korean Peninsula.

America’s voluntary retreat sent a clear green light to the predatory communist bloc of Stalin, Mao, and Kim. It was the direct catalyst for the outbreak of the Korean War. The white supremacists in Washington refused to support the Nationalist government in exterminating Soviet-backed communists in China — yet were ultimately forced into direct military confrontation with the CCP on the Korean battlefield.

The communist forces they fought — the so-called People’s Liberation Army — were none other than the Soviet-equipped faction that had previously conquered the Chinese mainland under America’s protection. Had Truman supported the Republic of China in eliminating the communists from the beginning, the mainland wouldn’t have fallen, nor would there have been a Korean War or Vietnam War. China’s postwar destiny — and the geopolitical balance of the entire world — could have been drastically different.

Thus, the racist policymakers ended up hoisting themselves with their own petard.

And yet, America failed to learn the lesson written in blood. Once Nixon was elected president, a new round of appeasement toward the Chinese communists began in earnest, and the U.S. once again embarked on a self-destructive path that would undermine its own national destiny.
Zhong Wen remarked: “In 1949, Roosevelt’s successor Truman fantasized about a “coalition government” between the Kuomintang and the CCP and pressured Chiang Kai-shek into a ceasefire, allowing Mao Zedong to rapidly communize all of China. In effect, Truman handed China over to the Soviet puppet Mao. In 1950, Stalin pushed further by unleashing Kim Il-sung to attack South Korea. Truman, instead of retaliating forcefully, forbade General MacArthur from crossing the Yalu River and ultimately recalled him to the U.S., preventing the annihilation of Mao’s forces. Truman saved Mao Zedong a second time.”