China 1949 Factfile

China 1949. Why did this event scare Americans? _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________ _______________________

Factfile In 1949 Communist Armies led by Mao Zedong defeated the nationalist regime of Chiang Kai-shek. The communists took control of the Chinese mainland, establishing the People's Republic of China, while Chiang Kai-shek, who had received U.S. support during the conflict, fled to the island of Taiwan. China, previously a loyal U.S. ally and a country Americans felt particularly familiar with because of the strong presence of American Christian missionaries, overnight became one of America's most bitter enemies. With the post–World War II world starkly divided into American and communist spheres of influence, the Chinese shift was seen as a serious loss. From the establishment of the People's Republic of China well into the Korean War and the witch hunts of the McCarthy era, a debate raged in Washington about whom to blame for the loss of China to communist forces. At the time, most of the blame fell on the administration of President Harry Truman, as well as suspected communist sympathisers and subversives American right-wingers managed to persuade the American people that the State Department had "been guided by a left-wing group who obviously have wanted to get rid of Chiang and were willing at least to turn China over to the Communists for that purpose." Nevada Senator Pat McCarran went even further, claiming "our own State Department peddles the Communistic propaganda line … it is time that something was done about it." These statements soon escalated into a search for communist infiltrators in the public administration and led to the ascent of Senator Joseph McCarthy who, in February 1950, claimed to have a list of 205 protected communists in the State Department.