ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the topic of this study, the “anti-communist righteous warriors,” who were defectors from the PRC to Taiwan during the Cold War. Specifically, this volume investigates the history of the most famed subset of this group, those pilots who dramatically made off with their aircraft for freedom in Taiwan between 1960 and 1989. Despite their great renown during the period of one-party Chinese Nationalist Party (Guomindang) rule in Taiwan, there is extremely little previous scholarship on them. Nevertheless, this work is inspired by and can contribute to a healthy body of scholarship on the effects of Cold War-era ROC rule on the people of Taiwan.
