Taiwan's plan to take back mainland
Most people in China and Taiwan might think they know what happened after the long and bloody civil war between the Chinese Nationalist Party and the Communist Party ended in 1949.
But recently declassified government archives have revealed a previously unknown secretive plan by Taiwan's late President Chiang Kai-shek to take back mainland China.
According to these newly-revealed government documents, by the 1960s Chiang thought the time was right to launch a counter-attack, given the devastating famine Mao Zedong's leadership had unleashed and the possibility China would soon have a nuclear weapon.
The US was fighting the Vietnam War then, and Chiang knew he needed US military assistance if he were to succeed, so he offered to help the Americans fight the war in Vietnam in exchange for US support.
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But recently declassified government archives have revealed a previously unknown secretive plan by Taiwan's late President Chiang Kai-shek to take back mainland China.
According to these newly-revealed government documents, by the 1960s Chiang thought the time was right to launch a counter-attack, given the devastating famine Mao Zedong's leadership had unleashed and the possibility China would soon have a nuclear weapon.
The US was fighting the Vietnam War then, and Chiang knew he needed US military assistance if he were to succeed, so he offered to help the Americans fight the war in Vietnam in exchange for US support.
Washington objected to Chiang's suggestions, but Chiang went ahead with his preparations anyway.
The declassified information - photocopies of which went on public display in Taiwan for the first time in May - show that Chiang's planned offensive, called the Guo Guang [National Glory] Project, involved 26 operations including land invasions, special operations behind enemy lines and raids against the enemy.