This chapter details the history and nature of the alliance between the United States and the ROC in order to provide background information about what the political situation was like between the two groups when Sergeant Robert G. Reynolds, a member of the U.S. Army, shot a Chinese man, presumably a soldier in the military of the ROC. Both countries were supposed to be staunch allies, united in their opposition to the communist government that controlled what it called the People's Republic of China (PRC). It was this alliance that brought Reynolds and the unidentified Chinese man into close proximity of one another. The alliance and U.S. support for the ROC in and of itself represented a historical paradox, though. Just a few years before, top U.S. leaders despised Chiang Kai-shek, head of the ROC, whose stature in America declined to leader of a regime marked by disunity, military defeat, inflation, and charges of corruption. However, after the outbreak of the Korean War, the United States would again ally with the ROC in order to prevent the spread of communism into Southeast Asia.