ABSTRACT
The central aim of this chapter is to consider US Taiwan policy in the critical years of 1949 and 1950. The overall emphasis is on how and why US policy towards China and Taiwan changed so drastically following the outbreak of the Korean War and what implications this shift had for the status of Taiwan. North Korea’s invasion of South Korea in June 1950 brought about a dramatic reversal in US Taiwan policy. Secretary of State Dean Acheson’s ‘hands off’ and ‘let the dust settle’ approach towards the Chinese Civil War, aiming to achieve American objectives by exploiting Sino-Soviet antagonism and carefully avoiding any irredentist issues in US relations with the PRC over Taiwan, was suddenly abandoned.
