The KMT in Burma

“To the extent that there was any strategic thinking about why the Americans ought to support the Nationalist Chinese in Burma, it was that the Chinese entered the Korean War in 1950. A kind of a second front in the south, they might have to withdraw troops from the north. All very foolish thinking.”

There are a long list of factors that destabilized Burma in the post-World War II era, which led to the 1958 and 1962 military coups by Ne Win. One factor that certainly exacerbated the situation was the covert CIA support for the KMT, the Nationalist Chinese forces then engulfed in a civil war with Mao's Communist army.

In his book "A Delicate Balance," as well as in our podcast discussion, historian Kenton Clymer goes into great detail in describing the nature of the CIA's involvement during these years. Both U Nu and Ne Win demanded the CIA stop all operations and the KMT troops be evacuated, and even successive American ambassadors pleaded with their own government to change course, noting that the KMT presence was actually encouraging CCP influence in the country, in addition to strengthening the impact of the CPB (Communist Party of Burma), which was a real force to be reckoned with at that time. Additionally, the KMT presence gave rise to ethnic insurgencies among Shan groups, who also wanted them out.

But the CIA held different views. At that time they regarded the threat of communist takeover in Burma as volatile as the unfolding situation in postwar Vietnam, and at this point still hoped the KMT could defeat Mao.

Now we know that this would never come to pass, and eventually most of the KMT would be airlifted away. However, the results of the CIA's involvement can still be seen in Myanmar to this day. Those KMT soldiers who did stay turned to the Golden Triangle, to fund their continuing revolution through opium. Long after the Nationalist struggle was defeated, the opium trade became too lucrative to abandon, and a new problem developed as a result. And finally, Kenton notes that much of contemporary Tatmadaw suspicion towards American intentions goes back to their memory of these secret operations in their backyard.