In his memoirs exSecretary of State Dean Acheson described the decay and exile of Chiangs government: Chiang Kaishek had emerged from the War (World War II) as the leader of the Chinese people. opposed by only one faction. the ragged. illequlped small Communist force in the hills. Chiang controlled the greatest military power in Chinese history. supported and given economic backing by the United States. Four years later. his armies and his support. both within the country and outside It had melted away. He was a refugee on a small island off the coast . . . The most inexhaustible patience of the Chinese had ended. They had not overthrown the government.