ABSTRACT
Over the years the United States has had to deal with several different kinds of Taiwan. During the 1950s and 1960s, Taipei was a bulwark against communism in Asia In the 1970s and 1980s Taiwan became an important economic model for development in the Third World. The amount of interchange between the United States and Taiwan has grown rapidly since the breaking of diplomatic relations in 1979. US-Taiwan relations are also heavily influenced by political trends on Taiwan. One of the most significant developments in recent years has been the democratization of Taiwan's political system. Political power is being redistributed away from the mainlanders to the majority Taiwanese population, as well as from an older to a new generation of leaders. Current US relations with Taipei are also influenced by economic developments on Taiwan.
