formosa strait (11. 790)

Triggering the first serious nuclear crisis of the Cold War with the US contemplating using its arsenal against the then unrecognised Communist government of the People’s Republic of China to protect the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek’s occupying Quemoy (Kimen, 金門, ‘Golden Gate) and Matsu (Lienchiang, 連江縣) islands in the Strait of Taiwan, only ten kilometres distant from the Chinese province of Fujan, a repelled amphibious invasion on this day in 1958 resulted in a continuous volley of shelling. A prominent subject of the televised Nixon-Kennedy debates, the American Joint Chiefs of Staff resolved to at minimum dispatch escorts for resupply missions, a nuclear response not within popular will (previously), volleys were exchanged until 1979 when as a prelude to the US normalising relations with China under a rather eccentric agreement that allowed bombing on alternating odd days and even days for restocking, with troops of both sides guaranteed safety from attack. The US quietly redeployed the extra warships in the region in December of that year and while there were occasion flairs in fighting turning deadly for China and Taiwan, the intermittent bombardments mostly consisted of an exchange of propaganda leafets.