Sarah Paine

Okay, well, how does the war affect all this?

Well, actually, the warfare that went on wiped out the two barriers to communist expansion in Asia.

What are the barriers?

Well, one, it's Chiang Kai-shek and the nationalists in China.

The Japanese wipe him out.

They don't totally defeat him, but they have so weakened him and so discredited him that by the end of the World War II, he is really poorly positioned to win the Chinese Civil War, which he promptly loses.

And then what does the United States do?

What's the other barrier to communism?

Well, it's the Japanese.

We wipe them out.

So what do you get?

A unified communist China, which makes really complicated wars in the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

And the problem is the gift that keeps on giving.

We're still dealing with this problem today.

So take a little word from Sun Tzu, know your enemy or the other side.

Know the person you're talking to.

Don't play half-court tennis.

It's a really dangerous game.

Rather, try to analyze why, ask yourself, why is someone doing whatever they're doing?

And just because you're trying to understand it doesn't mean you're condoning it.