Generalissimo: Chiang Kai-Shek and the China He Lost - Tapa dura

Chiang Kai-shek is one of the "forgotten" leaders of the 20th century. President of China during World War II, ally to Churchill and Roosevelt against the Japanese, Chiang was then forced to flee Peking in 1949 by the increasingly powerful Communist movement. Setting up a government-in-exile in Formosa (now Taiwan), Chiang planned to invade China and oust the Communists with US support. The invasion never took place, and Chiang had to be content with ruling Taiwan until his death in 1975. But what exactly was the China he lost in the fateful civil war? Where would China be now if he had won? Would his Kuomintang party have been any less autocratic than the Communists they tried to resist? These are just some of the questions addressed in Jonathan Fenby's survey of the life and legacy of one of the Orient's most fascinating figures.