Stalin's Korean protégés, were determined to fight, to unite Korea by force. He tried to keep Korean Communist forces on a tight rein and supplied primarily with defensive weapons. All of Truman's advisers saw the events in Korea as a test of American will to resist Soviet attempts to expand their power, and their system. In Beijing, Mao and his advisers were terribly apprehensive about American intentions. The United States ordered warships to the Taiwan Strait to prevent Mao's forces from invading Taiwan and mopping up the remnants of Chiang Kai-shek's army there. Throughout the Korean War, the Soviet Union gave diplomatic support to its Korean and Chinese allies. The Korean War ended in 1953, shortly after the death of Stalin. The Korean War was a momentous turning point in the Cold War. An almost inevitable civil war among a people, Communist and non-Communist, determined to unite their country, became an international war and a catalyst for a terrifying arms-race.