FORMOSA FILES PODCAST S4-E24: Ronald Reagan and the ROC (Taiwan)
Did you know that when the United Nations voted to admit “Red China” in 1971, then-California Governor Ronald Reagan called up President Richard Nixon and suggested that the United States quit the UN and become an “observer” in protest?
To some, Reagan was and is controversial, but when it comes to support for the Republic of China (Taiwan), there is no debate: Reagan thought Nixon and – especially Carter – were wrong to “throw a loyal friend overboard.”
Reagan came to Taiwan twice. The first time, in 1971, he was here as a reluctant envoy of Nixon on a mission to try and calm the fears of CKS over Nixon’s upcoming meeting with Mao in Beijing. During the second visit, as a private citizen in 1978, Reagan met with leader-in-waiting Chiang Ching-kuo and went back to the US full of praise for a modernizing Taiwan.
When President Carter switched diplomatic relations from Taipei to Beijing, Reagan stated that the US didn’t get enough out of it. He pointed out that China was the “supplicant,” and therefore in a position of weakness, and Reagan said that the precedent of betraying a friend would not be forgotten by other friends of the US.
--Maybe he had a point.
Cover photo: California Gov. Ronald Reagan meets ROC President Chiang Kai-shek at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Taiwan, Oct. 10, 1971. (The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute) Photo colorized by AI/Eryk Michael Smith.
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The Formosa Files podcast is sponsored by the FRANK CHEN FOUNDATION (陳啟川先生文教基金會)
Website: https://www.frank-chen.org.tw/
This top-rated history podcast tells stories from the history of Formosa (Taiwan) from circa 1600 C.E. - 2000 C.E., via interesting, lesser-known short stories presented in a non-chronological order.
HOSTS: John Ross is an author and co-founder of publisher Camphor Press, which specializes in books on Taiwan and China in English, while Eryk Michael Smith has worked as a writer and journalist for multiple media outlets in Taiwan, including the island's only English-language radio station ICRT (FM 100.7). Both Ross and Smith have lived in Taiwan for well over 20 years and call the island home.
