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Reason
Reason
Politics
David Bernstein

Marco Rubio Threatens to "Unleash Chiang" on Iran. What?

Rubio: "We're going to unleash Chiang on these people in the next few hours and days. You're going to really begin to perceive a change in the scope and intensity of these attacks as, frankly, the two most powerful air forces in the world take apart this terroristic regime."

But what the heck does unleash Chiang mean?

Some internet sleuthing tells me that after the Communists took over China and Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists fled to Taiwan, conservative commentators argued that the US should support a Nationalist invasion of the mainland. The shorthand for this became "unleash Chiang." Over time, in conservative foreign policy circles, "unleash Chiang" became slang for "unleash overwhelming force."

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