BURMA: Embarrassing Army

After Nationalist China collapsed in 1949, a remnant of the Nationalists' Eighth and Twenty-Sixth Armies, commanded by General Li Mi, fell back across the border into Burma. In the wild mountains of Burma's Shan States, Li Mi put a defense perimeter around his ragged forces and then went down to Bangkok to seek arms and supplies from wealthy Chinese merchants. Soon big, green, unmarked C-46s were flying into an airfield which Li Mi's men had built at Monghsat. Li Mi began commuting to Formosa, where he was well received.

By the summer of 1951, Li Mi was ready to attack...

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