Observing the Taiwan Strait Crisis from the Afghanistan War, Vietnam War, and Korean War

Observing the Taiwan Strait Crisis from the Afghanistan War, Vietnam War, and Korean War

China Times Editorial (Taipei, Taiwan)

March 8, 2020

 Translation of an Excerpt

The United States and the Afghanistan’s Taliban organization signed an agreement at the end of February; if everything goes smoothly, President Trump will have the opportunity to realize the commitment he made before his election, that is, to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan, ending an 18-year anti-terror war. Similar to the Vietnam War and the Korean War, this once again has become an important turning point in US foreign policy.

When the US feels that its past policy has entered a dead-end alley and could not deal with the new situation, its diplomacy would often make a large-scale change, abandoning its allies who fought shoulder-to-shoulder at one time, and abandoning the government that it single-handedly cultivated.

Therefore, in observing the agreement signed between the US and the Taliban, first one has to look back at the impact on US foreign policy of the 18-year war on terrorism, because it would undoubtedly become a turning point in the policy of the US from expansionism to contraction, from counter-terrorism to containment of China. The second is to appreciate from all these happenings the inertia of US diplomacy. For the US, like all other countries, self-interests always come first. Once the US finds that it must change its policy 180 degrees in order to safeguard its own maximum interests, then sacrificing its allies has become normal. In international politics, there is no right or wrong, but for all countries that rely on US protection or commitment, they must be psychologically prepared.

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