the party he founded, the nationalist party was later to be taken over by chiang kai-shek , later to be the great opponent of the communist civil war in china that followed was between economists and the nationalist and under chiang kai-shek set up an alternative regime in taiwan, still in power to this day. c-span: how big is china today in population? >> guest: a good question, 1.3 million. that single continent is quite important come 8 billion. c-span: how many people live in taiwan? >> guest: around 20 million. the difference is important because peoplesoft and say look taiwan is a democracy. it is and don't decry decry the taiwanese achievement, it's quite considerable but it's really happen a lot sooner 15 years after chiang kai-shek's death. he kept a dictatorial stranglehold on that island now you have to think one island with a lot of foreign aid up against 1,300,000,000 people in a huge disparate country which is ari's been difficult to rule. it's not. it's apples and oranges. you can't really compare. c-span: there's a photo in the book of the village. it's really not the

fdr, churchill, and shank kai-shek agreed korea would become independent. by the time of yalta, the independents or korea had morphed to three powers which included the soviet union but not great britain. , unlike the written commitment and yalta agreement concerning outer mongolia, manchuria and the cure-all islands, the absence of any formal limit for homeland japan and korea were truman's way out of fdr's dad bargain. truman would adhere scrupulously to the written commitment but alter the informal understanding and the atomic bomb would be the key to success. as truman's review continued, it that the japanese navy and air force ceased to andt as a viable force commence massive incendiary bombing against most cities, leaving them in ruins. the u.s. navy commenced a blockade as a country, bombarding its coastal cities. submarines had cut off all access. japan was prostrate. word came the japanese were seeking to end the war. extending peace deal to the vatican, the united states, zurich and to the russians in moscow. was most are not was the information t

changai-shek -- kai-shek. truman, four months after taking the oath of president, leads his country to peace. president breaks the momentous news of japan's surrender. >> i have received this afternoon a message from the japanese government in reply to the message forwarded to that government by the secretary on august 11. i deem this reply a full acceptance of the potsdam declaration, which emphasized the unconditional surrender of japan. is no qualification. arrangements are being made for the formal signing of the at the earliest possible moment. general douglas macarthur has been appointed the supreme allied commander two receive the japanese surrender. great britain, russia, and china will be represented by high-ranking officers. meantime, the allied armed forces have been ordered to suspend offensive actions. the proclamation of vj day must await the formal signing of the surrender terms by japan. rush the newsman a waitings report to world. in new york city and throughout the rejoicing nation and world,

some indication that the soviets were seeking a quick conclusion to the negotiations with shang kai-shek and the with thoseernment provisions in the secret agreement at yell to. was there any indication in the papers you found in the soviet union that the russians were less treated with the pace of the negotiations with the chinese? ok, let me take two more questions and we will end with that, yes. >> my name is philip kaplan. there has been some historical writing to the effect that one of the things that led truman to -- the bomb, not the exclusive thing, but in combination with some of the other analysis you have it possession, might be to make clear to the soviet union who would be in charge. i would be interested if you could comment on that. prof. harrison: i'm interested in that, too. great. last question here. >> i'm at catholic university. following on on that, it sounded closely adhere fairly to the thesis in atomic .iplomacy the first half of my question is -- do you have any disagreements with that thesis? second, i did not hear any the japanese peace posing conditions other