Why didn't the western powers get more involved in the late

>>2971410
You really want to get involved in a civil war the size of Europe?

Just right after WWII?

one is an easily accessible coastal province, one is a mountainous inland empire

If this is a question you're really asking you have a lot more to learn about the fundamentals of those time periods before you start making and reading theories

>>2971410
>before ww2
isolationism
>after ww2
nigga we just had ww2

>>2971410
Because the western powers could change the tide of the Korean war by sending about 400,000 soldiers between them. (Although let's be fair, it was overwhelmingly the U.S.) That's a fair amount, but that's an expeditionary force, not a super-major effort involving turning the national economy to a war footing or anything. They could be effective because the war was smaller, both in terms of geography and in scope.

Intervining in a useful manner in the Chinese Civil War is way different. Suddenly, you're dealing with a landmass roughly the size of all of Europe sans Russia, you're dealing with a colossal population, in a war that in some ways is more like two insurgent groups fighting each other without clearly fixed lines of battle and control. To top it all off, your "ally", the Kuomintang, are almost terminally stupid and corrupt, and managed to waste the billions of aid you've already given them, some of it winding up in the hands of the Communists you're opposing because they're incapable of controlling the vassal warlords that actually make up the bulk of their forces. These guys are functionally more like some 16th century feudal nobility "state" than a modern one. Actually intervening in the Chinese Civil War would probably involve fighting most of it for the KMT, and that involves a colossal fucking effort, one that the western world wasn't willing to go through, especially not right after WW2.

>>2971425
Actually, before WWII, you did have foreign powers assisting the republic over the decades.

German, US, French, and British military advisors were all over the place. The Soviets also, with the condition that the CCP is given leeway.

>>2971436
Are you really comparing sending instructors and advisors to the Korean war?

File: OMaA463_Chinese_Warlord_Armies_1911-30-18.jpg (855KB, 1833x2600px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2971440
Well, Japan had a "TOTALLY NOT OURS" army battalions of Chinese-Speaking Japanese soldiers helping out one of the Warlord Cliques (the Fengtien) during 1920s.

America actually gave a tremendous amount of support to the nationalists. The USAF was used to ferry soldiers and materiel for Chiang's unbelievably moronic strategy of capturing Manchurian cities and then keeping them resupplied by air. In June 1946 the US gave Chiang $500 million to develop his military.

But American military and political advisers eventually became fed up with Chiang's refusal to listen to their advice and general incompetence, and advised against further intervention. In fact if there were two words that could be use to describe his leadership in the civil war they would be incompetent and corrupt. To cover their war debts the GMD simply printed more money, and that combined with shortages of consumer goods spiralled hyperinflation incredibly out of control. Prices in July 1948 were thre million times higher than in July 1937, and in 1949 the situation deteriorated even further. By late 1947 the very fabric of rural society was unraveling. In 1948 48 million people, roughly 10% of the population were refugees.

Here's a quote from a state department report to the president evaluating Chiang's position in the spring of 1947

>the basis of the present regime's support has been the urban population: government employees and teachers, intellectuals, and business and industrial circles. At present, no one among these people has any positive feelings toward the Nanjing regime. The [GMD's] tyrannical style is causing deep hatred among liberal elements...the government officials by indulging in corrupt practices and creating every kind of obstruction have caused extreme dissatisfaction in business and industrial circles. The violent rise in prices...and the continuation of civil war is causing sounds of resentment to be heard everywhere...

source: Kai Suzanne Pepper, "The GMD-CCP Conflict 1945-1949" p. 781

>>2971434
>>2971488
Thanks

>>2971488
Since you're so well versed I gotta ask, how much did the USSR help out the CPC? Could the CPC have won without russian aid?

>>2972707

Not that guy but the USSR helped out the nationalists as well as the CPC. At least against Japan.

Stalin didnt want a China that was too strong. Mao was initially willing to play ball when Stalin was in charge.

>>2971418
>the size of Europe?

You really should look up how large both Europe and China are

>>2972727

If you insist, "larger than Europe". That doesn't make it any more appealing for intervention.

>>2972707
They gave them a big load of the Kwantung armies shit and let them occupy Manchuria as they pulled out

File: china_europe.png (631KB, 1600x1091px) Image search: [Google]

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>>2972727
Not him, but the comparison is apt.

>>2972707
the USSR didn't really help them out directly as much as the US did with the nationalists, but what they did do was delay the withdrawal of Russian troops from Manchuria while refusing to allow the GMD to move its soldiers in to occupy the region. This allowed the CCP time to move their forces in and occupy the countryside. They also told the US that if the USN was used to ferry troops into Manchuria it would be considered an act of aggression.

US military advisers said not to be too concerned about that, and that the GMD should focus on strengthening and defending its position south of the great wall. However Chiang disagreed with this and airlifted his forces to capture the Manchurian cities, and have them be resupplied by air. Though they were able to easily capture the cities the CCP had become extremely popular in the countrside due to their radical land reform policy, so the GMD was unable to make any headway and remained in isolated pockets. This strategy was also ludicrously expensive, of the $500 million in US military aid Chiang recieved from the US in 1946 he spent $400 million of it on keeping this airlift supplied for just 3 months.

In the end all it accomplished was that it left too few forces in reserve to defend China south of the wall, an opening the CCP gladly exploited.

>>2973239
>>2971434

What's the difference between the KMT and the GMD?

>>2973246
It's the same party, just romanized differently.

>>2973246
The same thing, just translated differently

KMT, short for Kuomintang is romanized using the wade giles translation method, which was developed in the mid 19th century. GMD, short for Guomindang is romanized using pinyin which was developed in the 1950s and became widely adopted in the west in the 1980s.

Pinyin gives a more accurate romanization. For instance the word for China's capital in wade giles is Peking, and in pinyin it's Beijing.