459: Taiwan's 1957 Liu Ziran Incident & Reynolds Riot w/ Stephen Craft

459: Taiwan's 1957 Liu Ziran Incident & Reynolds Riot w/ Stephen Craft

Published: October 15, 2026

Duration: 1:09:01

In March 1957, Master Sergeant Robert Reynolds, a U.S. military adviser living with his family outside Taipei, Taiwan, shot and killed a man named Liu Ziran, who Reynolds claimed had been peeping through his bathroom window. Because Reynolds had diplomatic immunity, he was tried by a U.S. Army court-martial, and Taiwanese officials had no say in the proceedings. When he was acquitted that May, outrage boiled over, and an angry mob stormed the U.S. Embassy in Taipei. My guest is Stephen G. Craft, author of American Justice in Taiwan: The 1957 Riots and Cold War Foreign Policy. He discusses...