The Robert Reynolds Case

More on the anti-U.S. protests that I mentioned in my entry a few days ago, specifically the case involving the killing of a Taiwanese by U.S. Army Sergeant Robert Reynolds.

According to further sources that I recently came upon, it seems that there is more to it than meets the eye.

To recap, Reynolds killed Liu Tze-jan in May 1975 outside his (Reynolds') house claiming that he saw Liu peering through the window at his disrobed wife, and feared that Liu was planning an attack.

But according to other reports which surfaced later, Reynolds and Liu apparently knew each other. Indeed, Reynolds had reportedly entrusted Liu on several occasions to resell PX products taken from his barrack.

Reports also indicated that Liu was well aware that Reynolds would be charged and sent back to the United States if the latter were caught reselling military products. Hence Liu reportedly took advantage of the situation to give himself a bigger share of the profits. This naturally angered Reynolds, and was said to have been one of the main reasons why he killed Liu.

Anyway, the long and short of it was that the incident had been exploited by the then Taiwanese leadership who had deliberately allowed anti-U.S. sentiment to get out of control.