ycwang -> RE: Ratings of Chiang Kai-Shek (7/16/2004 9:58:31 AM)
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ORIGINAL: Bandkanon I apologize for my earleir rudeness. I was, however, very surprised trying to make the point for higher numbers for Chiang. I don't understand why you think Chiang won the civil in China prior to the invasion of the Japanese. It was Chiang's arrogance in the first place when he kicked the Communits out of the KMT during the Northern Invasion of 1925 in Shanghai. For the next decade Chiang chased the CCP all over China but was never fully able to eradicate them. It was only through a German advisor and his blockhouse strategy of containment then eradication, which itself was very much like how the Ching's Han banners destroyed the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom almost a century earlier. Just because Chiang went to a Japanese military school does not mean he is even capable of military operations. Chiang was also the commandant of Whampoa Military Academy, and from the stories of my grandfather, who was a graduate of the 17th Class, Chiang wasn't all that great of a military man. His strategy of staying put is sound but immoral in my opinion. But morality oftentimes do not matter in war. He could have fought harder against the Japanese, especially in 1931 in Shanghai, and the subsequent invasion in 1937. KMT troops were fighting hard on and providing much resistance to the IJA in Shanghai and needed supplies and reinforcements. Chiang misjudged and decided to pull back thereby forfeiting the defense. The retreat thus turned into a rout. The KMT troops who fought the IJA were mediocre and definitely not Chiang's best, but they put up enough resistance to frustrate the IJA enough to perpetrate one of the worst massacres in human history at Nanjing. If only Chiang was willing to inspire his troops to fight, but he didn't. Chiang only became the leader of China because he was able to politically herd the warlords into place, either through the threat of force or by just buying them into the KMT, and it was often the latter tactic he used. He was never a good planner of military operations and when he did it always sucked. Another example of his ineptitude was the Battle of BeiHai in northern China in 1948. The KMT had the best the US could offer: artillery, tanks, and planes. But what did they do? They just sat on their asses and waited for the CCP to encircle them and build layers and layers of trenches until the armor was completely useless. The result: the complete collapse of the KMT in northern China and then the retreat back to Taiwan. What I just said is true. My grandfather was there fighting for the KMT as a LT. general. He escaped the encirclement only because he was freed by his captors, who were also Whampoa graduates after he turned down to offer to turn coat. But this battle just shows the ineptitude of Chiang as the leader since he is the one who has to take responsibility for his command decisions. By the way, why does Taiwan follow the Japanese way of teaching law to 4 year undergrads? How come there aren't any law schools like the states? I interned with Lee and Li for a while and I am sorry to say I was not very impressed wth the thinking of undergrad law students in Taiwan. It seems that they are taught law but never the reasons as to why the laws exist in the first place. Your comment this time is indeed very informative and has more significant substance. Please don't forget that I only argued CKS should not be the worst general of all in this game. Referring to your off-topic question: A simplified version of the reason why Japan had and Taiwan now still has undergraduate legal education is that we both considered ourselves countries of "Civil Law system", as opposed to the Common Law system. Therefore, basically both Japan and Taiwan, to some extent, cloned the German legal system and its undergraduate legal education. However, Japan has changed their legal education system since (I believe) this year and switched to graduate legal education similar to what has been done in American law schools. We have some similar discussions here in Taiwan in the legal education circle. I do agree with you that many undergraduate students are not mature enough to meet the chanlleges in the legal education. I personally also favor a migration to graduate level of legal education.
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