Marco Rubio Threatens to "Unleash Chiang" on Iran. What?

Rubio: "We're going to unleash Chiang on these people in the next few hours and days. You're going to really begin to perceive a change in the scope and intensity of these attacks as, frankly, the two most powerful air forces in the world take apart this terroristic regime."

But what the heck does unleash Chiang mean?

Some internet sleuthing tells me that after the Communists took over China and Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists fled to Taiwan, conservative commentators argued that the US should support a Nationalist invasion of the mainland. The shorthand for this became "unleash Chiang." Over time, in conservative foreign policy circles, "unleash Chiang" became slang for "unleash overwhelming force."

 

Comments

[Krayt]

Interesting coincidence in today's international political climate.

[Frank Drackman]

Good pick up, I was thinking it was like "Death by Unga Bunga" (HT Flavor Flav)

[Sven_Hunkstrom]

The volley of comments on this one is going to serve up some real comedy.

[not guilty]

I have read that President Truman referred derisively to Chiang Kai-shek as "Cash My Check."

[Lee Hollaar]

A number of sources have said that it is "Chang" instead of "Chiang", and Rubio explained the phrase in a 2012 New York Times interview.

NYTimes: "After you became the first Cuban-American speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, in 2006, your mentor, Jeb Bush, presented you with a sword. What was that about?"

Rubio: "Chang is a mythical conservative warrior. From time to time, if there’s a big issue going on, you’d see Jeb say, “I’m going to unleash Chang.” He gave me the sword of Chang."

The NY Post has a picture of Rubio with the sword at the time:
https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2026/03/2005-file-photo-then-rep-27562940.jpg

[John F. Carr]

Unleashing the loser of a war is not as threatening as unleashing a myth.

[Paul Zrimsek]

Was the Kraken unavailable, or is Rubio saving it for later?

[Frank Drackman]

"I think this place is "Restricted" Chiang, so don't tell them you're Jewish"

[ReadMore]

Oh, good. David is importing the musings from his twitter feed directly to the blog.

[Sven_Hunkstrom]

So actual story on this appears to be that after Michael Chang (a 17 year old American tennis player) shockingly won the French Open in 1989, George HW Bush started making a joke while playing tennis that he was going to “unleash Chang”—start playing tennis very competently—as a pun alluding to the 1950’s slogan.

This became a touchstone Bush Family in-joke or shorthand for “releasing the Kraken” etc that made its way thru Jeb to other Florida politicians like Rubio, and absurdly grew to involve a whole lore including mystical warriors and swords.

Quick Google search shows that first printed mention of this phrase as a Bush slogan comes via a Washington Post article that (a) has as its subject the “politics of tennis”; (b) was published in 1989, the year of Michael Chang’s famous victory; and (c) spells the name “Chang” and not “Chiang”.