ABSTRACT
Fifteen miles from Taipeh, capital of Taiwan, there is a small, Japanese-built resort town called Tsaoshan, perched on a mountainside amid semi-tropical flora. The organized brain trust is only a small part of the entourage that makes up Chiang K’ai-shek’s unofficial government on Taiwan. The island is crowded with old Party hands, including the most diehard, unchangeable, uncompromising ones, as well as numerous old commanders and generals, who are a dime a dozen. Chiang has entrusted the administration of Taiwan to one of his closest personal followers, General Ch’en Ch’eng, who was sent to the island at the end of 1948 to prepare a base to which Chiang could retire. The military forces under Nationalist control, and under General Ch’en’s command, total about 600,000 men, roughly half of whom are infantry effectives. The difficulty of amphibious operations against the offshore islands, if the defending troops fight, was indicated by two Communist invasion attacks that were decisively smashed by the Nationalists.
