Taiwan in T2K

[RN7]

Taiwan's position is a bit like the question of Japan being nuked or not. Its fairly important from an economic point but not nearly as important as Japan. But from its geographical location it is strategically important. Air and naval forces based in Taiwan can range over the South China Sea, the East China Sea, much of mainland China and into the Pacific. During the Second World War the island of Formosa (Taiwan) was heavily used by the Japanese as a base of operations for precisely this reason, and US forces heavily bombed Japanese bases in Formosa because of it.

Even if Taiwanese forces were not present on mainland China I would be certain that US air and naval forces would be based in Taiwan during the Sino-Soviet War and the first year of the Twilight War. I could not see Taiwan being blanketed with nuclear strikes by the Soviets, but certainly a few low yield nukes against a few ports and airfields to deny them to the Americans.

[Legbreaker]

Originally Posted by RN7

I could not see Taiwan being blanketed with nuclear strikes by the Soviets, but certainly a few low yield nukes against a few ports and airfields to deny them to the Americans.

Yes, "slagged" might be just a bit extreme, but with the multitude of potential high value targets on the island, it certainly would be a nice place to try and scrape out a living afterwards!
We know Neutral countries and their facilities were targeted. That pushes the likelihood of Taiwan being attacked much further up the list.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by RN7

Even if Taiwanese forces were not present on mainland China I would be certain that US air and naval forces would be based in Taiwan during the Sino-Soviet War and the first year of the Twilight War. I could not see Taiwan being blanketed with nuclear strikes by the Soviets, but certainly a few low yield nukes against a few ports and airfields to deny them to the Americans.

Agreed. Unless Taiwan both refused to assist the PRC (either directly or as a transshipment point for war materials) AND refused to allow the U.S. to base military assets there once the U.S. entered the war, Taiwan would almost certainly get nuked by the Soviets. At the least, targets would be U.S. base sites and oil refineries. At the worst, Taiwan's manufacturing sector would get it too.

[Olefin]

Originally Posted by Raellus

Agreed. Unless Taiwan both refused to assist the PRC (either directly or as a transshipment point for war materials) AND refused to allow the U.S. to base military assets there once the U.S. entered the war, Taiwan would almost certainly get nuked by the Soviets. At the least, targets would be U.S. base sites and oil refineries. At the worst, Taiwan's manufacturing sector would get it too.

I think you have to look at what happened to Thailand (or the lack of what happened to Thailand) as an indication of where the Soviets might not have used nukes - after all Thailand is a US ally and a great place to base US planes and ships - but you dont see nuke damage there - still I agree if you had US ships using one port a lot that port might just get a nice nuke saying hello to it

in general though unless the Taiwanese go out of their way to make themselves a target there are a lot better uses for Soviet nukes in Asia

[Olefin]

Originally Posted by RN7

Taiwan's position is a bit like the question of Japan being nuked or not. Its fairly important from an economic point but not nearly as important as Japan. But from its geographical location it is strategically important. Air and naval forces based in Taiwan can range over the South China Sea, the East China Sea, much of mainland China and into the Pacific. During the Second World War the island of Formosa (Taiwan) was heavily used by the Japanese as a base of operations for precisely this reason, and US forces heavily bombed Japanese bases in Formosa because of it.

Even if Taiwanese forces were not present on mainland China I would be certain that US air and naval forces would be based in Taiwan during the Sino-Soviet War and the first year of the Twilight War. I could not see Taiwan being blanketed with nuclear strikes by the Soviets, but certainly a few low yield nukes against a few ports and airfields to deny them to the Americans.

Or you could get the govt of Taiwan say they are neutral and not allow the US basing rights - which might explain how Thailand didnt get nuked either (I could be wrong about that - been a while since I read the Thailand module) - but per the V2.2. book Thailand was relatively untouched by the war - which to me means no nukes or not more than one or so

I will say this though - if we go with the "big refineries get nuked" argument - which isnt always 100% correct when you see that some werent in the canon in the US for instance - then Taiwan has several that definitely qualify

[Legbreaker]

Thailand isn't a great comparison though. It's further away from the action by a thousand miles or so, and doesn't straddle any major shipping routes (adjacent to, but not actually on like Taiwan). Additionally, none of the major combatants need to shift supplies through the area.
It's too far from the action to be used as an air base, and there's potentially hostile countries in the way as well.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Thailand isn't a great comparison though. It's further away from the action by a thousand miles or so, and doesn't straddle any major shipping routes (adjacent to, but not actually on like Taiwan). Additionally, none of the major combatants need to shift supplies through the area.
It's too far from the action to be used as an air base, and there's potentially hostile countries in the way as well.

In general, I agree, but the v1.0 timeline does list Soviet forces in Vietnam and Thailand could provide airbases for Allied attacks on said.

[Legbreaker]

How significant are those Soviet forces though? Could be aircraft from Taiwan were judged sufficient to keep tabs on them and drop the occasional load of bombs on them...

[Olefin]

The Soviet forces in the original timeline in Vietnam were pretty significant - there was a Front assigned there with several divisions that were taking on the Chinese along with the Vietnamese - more than enough that they could have been a significant threat to Thailand as well.

Again this could be a matter of what timeline you are using - the V1 timeline had them there, the V2 timeline doesnt

[Olefin]

FYI if you are looking at the V1 timeline most likely the US never pulls out of Subic Bay and Clark Field in the Philippines even with the volcanic eruption there - so the place they would probably have their fleet deployments and USAF support elements for China very well would be there especially if what they are doing is keeping the sealanes open for shipments to China and Japan