{"id":1918,"date":"2026-01-03T22:00:29","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T22:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/fatal-terrain-brown-dale\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T22:00:29","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T22:00:29","slug":"fatal-terrain-brown-dale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/fatal-terrain-brown-dale\/","title":{"rendered":"Fatal Terrain – Brown, Dale"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Book Preview<\/h3>\n
\n

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY HALL, GOVERNMENT HOUSE,<\/p>\n

TAIPEI, REPUBLIC OF CHINA<\/p>\n

SUNDAY, 15 MAY 1997<\/st1u0003adate>, 1900 HOURS LOCAL<\/p>\n

(17 MAY, 0700<\/st1u0003adate> HOURS ET)<\/p>\n

The fistfight broke out as suddenly as a thunderclap. Several<\/p>\n

men and women leaped over seats to clutch at those who dared<\/p>\n

disagree with them or support another side over theirs. Railings<\/p>\n

and seats were used as ladders to try to get at one another,<\/p>\n

and the entire crowd seemed to surge forward like a pack of<\/p>\n

wolves on the attack.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The scene resembled an unruly crowd at a World Cup soc-<\/p>\n

cer match, or a riot in South Central-but this was a special<\/p>\n

session of the National Assembly of the government of the<\/p>\n

Republic of China on Taiwan.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The president pro tem of the National Assembly hammered<\/p>\n

his gavel, trying to restore order. He glanced over at the na-<\/p>\n

tional guard troops peeking through the window in the back<\/p>\n

of the chamber, ready to burst in if necessary. He heard break-<\/p>\n

ing glass and almost hit the panic button, but stayed calm and<\/p>\n

watched nervously as the noisy politicians surged forward. It<\/p>\n

took nearly thirty minutes to restore some level of calm, and<\/p>\n

another ten minutes for the legislators to clear the aisles<\/p>\n

enough so the National Police could escort the president of the<\/p>\n

Republic of China, Lee Teng-hui, to the podium.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>My fellow citizens, your attention, please. I am pleased to<\/p>\n

announce the results of the ratification vote of t -he Legislative<\/p>\n

Branch, which was taken just a few hours ago,” President Lee<\/p>\n

began. “By a vote of two hundred seventy-one for, thirty<\/p>\n

against, three abstaining, Mr. Huang Chou-ming is hereby ap-<\/p>\n

proved by the people of the Republic of Taiwan to serve as<\/p>\n

vice president and premier. Mr. Huang, step forward, please.”<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Amid renewed cheering and yelling, mostly from the left<\/p>\n

side of the hall, the new premier of the Republic of China<\/p>\n

stepped up to the dais and accepted the green-and-gold sash<\/p>\n

of office. Huang was a major figure in the Democratic Pro-<\/p>\n

gressive Party (DPP), and his election to the number-two po-<\/p>\n

sition in the Taiwanese government was significant-it was<\/p>\n

the first major advance of a non-Kuornintang (KMT) Party<\/p>\n

member in the country’s short history. Although the Kuom-<\/p>\n

intang still held a solid majority in all branches of the Tai-<\/p>\n

wanese government, the advancement of the DPP was a major<\/p>\n

shift from nearly fifty years of KMT philosophy and control.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The shouting, cheering, celebrations, and accusations sud-<\/p>\n

denly and violently turned into another brawl on the floor of<\/p>\n

the National Assembly. While bodyguards surrounded the<\/p>\n

president and vice president, members of Taiwan’s National<\/p>\n

Assembly ran up and down the aisles, stood on desks, and<\/p>\n

screamed at each other; several members were up on the dais<\/p>\n

near the president, fighting with one another to decide who<\/p>\n

would speak with the president first. Members of the National<\/p>\n

Police Administration, charged with the protection of govern-<\/p>\n

ment buildings and property and who acted as security guards in the National Assembly chamber, had moved into the cham-<\/p>\n

ber itself and stood stock-still along the outer aisles of the<\/p>\n

Assembly chamber, long cane batons nearly invisible at their<\/p>\n

sides and tear-gas canisters safely tucked away inside their<\/p>\n

tunics. They did nothing but watch with stone-expressionless<\/p>\n

faces while the fights and bedlam raged all around them.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>“My fellow citizens,” President Lee tried. His voice, even<\/p>\n

amplified, was barely heard. He waited patiently for any sign<\/p>\n

that the near-riot was subsiding. He heard clothing rip just a<\/p>\n

few paces away from him-the fight had somehow moved up<\/p>\n

to the dais, where police were trying to keep Assembly mem-<\/p>\n

bers from reaching the president and new premier-and de-<\/p>\n

cided that he needed to wait a few moments longer. He had a<\/p>\n

pistol tucked away in a holster inside his pants at the small of<\/p>\n

his back, and Lee considered firing a shot in the air to get<\/p>\n

everyone’s attention, but quickly decided that a gunshot might<\/p>\n

just make this place explode.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>The Taiwanese National Assembly was composed of mem-<\/p>\n

bers elected for life. Since most of the membership had been<\/p>\n

elected to their post in 1948, prior to the Communist overthrow<\/p>\n

of the Nationalist Party on the mainland, there were some very<\/p>\n

old gentlemen here in the Assembly Hall. But the old goats,<\/p>\n

Lee noticed, were arguing and fighting just as hard as the more<\/p>\n

newly elected members-they just had less endurance. The<\/p>\n

hall was splitting into two distinct sections, a normal and corn-<\/p>\n

mon occurrence here in the National Assembly. The largest<\/p>\n

group was the Kuomintang, along with their nominal allies the<\/p>\n

New Party, the Young China Party, and the Chinese Demo-<\/p>\n

cratic Socialist Party. On the other side were the members of<\/p>\n

the Democratic Progressive Party, a more liberal and modern-<\/p>\n

thinking political party filled with young, energetic, rather ide-<\/p>\n

alistic members. Although the right side of the hall, filled with<\/p>\n

KMT members and supporters, was much larger, both sides<\/p>\n

were equally boisterous.<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Read the full book by downloading it below.<\/p>\n

DOWNLOAD EPUB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Book Preview NATIONAL ASSEMBLY HALL, GOVERNMENT HOUSE, TAIPEI, REPUBLIC OF CHINA SUNDAY, 15 MAY 1997, 1900 HOURS LOCAL (17 MAY, 0700 HOURS ET) The fistfight broke out as suddenly as a thunderclap. Several men and women leaped over seats to clutch at those who dared disagree with them or support another side over theirs. Railings … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[99],"class_list":["post-1918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dale-brown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epub-book.com\/download\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}