> If the Iraqi government had waited until it had nuclear weapons,
> Iraq might well have become the first country since 1945 to
> annex all of another country successfully (country as recognized
> by the UN as a 1648 `Treaty of Westfalia' type of country, not
> as a `protocol state' such as South Vietnam)
Just to nit-pick (as is list tradition), I think the people of
Irian Jaya would disagree...
I'm not sure how you'd consider the status of Tibet either -
aren't they effectively annexed?
To nit-pick a bit more: Irian Jaya (the western half of New Guinea is
what I think you mean -- the names have changed since I first learned
them) was *not* an independent country; it was a Dutch colony,
separate from Java. It should have been made independent, but
shamefully was not.
As far as I know, Tibet was never a member of the UN. (That is why I
specified that.) At various times over the past few centuries, the
Tibetan government (a conservative theocracy, I think) paid tribute or
sent gifts to Chinese emperors. When a Chinese government was weak,
it did not.
China annexed Tibet after a new government, the communists, won a
civil war, took power on the mainland, and suppressed most provincial
independence. In traditional Chinese terms, the new government had
captured `the mandate of Heaven'. The annexation occurred before
China got nuclear weapons, but after the Soviet Union tested them,
while China and the Soviets were still allied.
My sense is that the US was more concerned with the contemporary
fighting in Korea and with fears that that fighting was a feint to
take attention away from another war in Europe, the French were
concerned with Indo-China, and the British concerned with Kenya and
Malaya. None of the Western powers had Tibet as a colony, unlike
Indo-China, Kenya and Malaya at that time; and Tibet did not have oil
or any other reason to be considered of strategic significance.
I am told that Mao invested a great deal inefficently in northern and
eastern Tibet because the region was a long distance away from any
possible attacker. This was before long range missiles; attacking
soldiers would have had to march across rough territory, ford numerous
rivers without bridges, etc. I have seen Han Chinese racism against
Tibetans, mostly uncommented on by Americans.
--
Robert J. Chassell
[EMAIL PROTECTED] GnuPG Key ID: 004B4AC8
http://www.rattlesnake.com http://www.teak.cc
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