Why would we go to war over Taiwan or Ukraine?
Too many people casually throw around words like "Munich" and "appeasement" when someone floats the idea of not going to war with Russia or China over Taiwan or Ukraine. They posit that if one country falls, the aggressor nation will launch a global land grab like Hitler did after being handed Czechoslovakia in 1938.
As I recently discussed in detail , however, the better analogy is the Soviet Union’s invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. The U.S. and the West abhorred and strongly condemned the Soviet Union's actions, but for practical and rational reasons, Moscow’s invasions did not result in any further territorial attacks. Taiwan is a highly emotional issue for the Chinese leaders and has been for over 70 years. Eastern Ukraine has been a friction point between Moscow and Kiev dating back to Catherine the Great in the 1700s. These are special cases.
Too many people casually throw around words like "Munich" and "appeasement" when someone floats the idea of not going to war with Russia or China over Taiwan or Ukraine. They posit that if one country falls, the aggressor nation will launch a global land grab like Hitler did after being handed Czechoslovakia in 1938.
As I recently discussed in detail , however, the better analogy is the Soviet Union’s invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968. The U.S. and the West abhorred and strongly condemned the Soviet Union's actions, but for practical and rational reasons, Moscow’s invasions did not result in any further territorial attacks. Taiwan is a highly emotional issue for the Chinese leaders and has been for over 70 years. Eastern Ukraine has been a friction point between Moscow and Kiev dating back to Catherine the Great in the 1700s. These are special cases.