Truman and the Beginning of Ambiguous Policy

Strategic ambiguity between Washington and Taiwan began in 1950. President Harry S. Truman interrupted the Chinese Civil War when he placed the U.S. 7th Fleet in Taiwan Strait in response to North Korea’s attack on South Korea in June of 1950. The Truman administration feared Korean conflict would provide a diversion during which Communist Chinese would try to conquer off shore islands that remained in Nationalist Chinese hands and then attack Taiwan to dislodge and defeat Chian Kai-shek’s surviving troops.