Animated Map of the Chinese Civil War, 1945–1961

Listeners interested in a visual representation of the progress of the fighting in the Chinese Civil War during its final phase after World War II — which we discuss in the first portion of Episode 208 ("Cash My Check") of the "Tea, Drugs, and Jesus" series, which considers the idea that the United States always has misunderstood China — might like to watch the animated map in this YouTube video.

Listeners should note the Communist stronghold in Manchuria in 1945–1946, the ineffectiveness of Nationalist offensives in 1946–1947, he Nationalist collapse in 1948–1949 and the Nationalist government's retreat to Taiwan in December 1949, the continued fighting in southern China in 1950, the intervention of Communist Chinese "volunteers" in the Korean War in October 1950, the Communist Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1951, and the survival of Chinese Nationalist holdouts along the China-Burma border until 1960 and in western China until 1961. Note also that upon the final defeat of the Nationalists on the mainland, the People's Republic of China deployed a substantial force to its northern border to face a by-then-hostile Soviet Union — a huge split in the Communist world which we discuss in Episode 210 ("Only Nixon Can Go to China").