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UNIT9
Chinese-American Relations: A History(��)
The Cold War
After the war, a new war
of international tension, intrigue
and political posturing, called the Cold War,
forced the US to scrap
any thoughts of the false comforts
of official isolation. It joined
the United Nations (UN) and other
international organizations, such as
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO),
the International Monetary Fund (IMF),
and the General Agreement on Tariff
and Trade (GATT). It was determined
to play a major, if not
dominant role, in post war
international affairs. The world
was the stage for intense rivalry
between the Communists, on one side,
and democratic Capitalists on the other.
It fostered close scrutiny
of each other, as well as
a brisk interchange of often fabricated
and distorted propaganda between
the polarized sides. It injected
the fear that if one side blinked,
a nuclear war would be triggered.
The world, seemingly, was always
on the verge of warfare.
This environment placed the United States
and China on opposite sides
once the Communists took power
in China in 1949. This constant
friction jeopardized chances for
meaningful political interaction and intercourse.
This atmosphere of distrust and fear
left little incentive for the
different sides to talk seriously.
By the end of the Second World War,
or during the last year or
two of the war, the world stage
was being set for the Cold War.
President Truman's attitude toward China hardened.
American policy was explicit that
only one China, Nationalist China
led by Chiang Kai��shek, on the island
of Taiwan, was the official China.
The Americans made it abundantly clear,
that Mao Tsetung's Communist Regime,
on mainland China, would not occupy
China's permanent seat in the United Nations
Security Council.
The outbreak of war on
the Korean Peninsula brought about
an abrupt change of focus
in American foreign policy.
The new American strategy was
to militarily isolate or alienate
China in Asia. To accomplish this,
the United States established bases
in East Asia and mutual defense
treaties in East Asia. Treaties
were negotiated with Japan, the Philippines,
Australia, and New Zealand. American
President Eisenhower later expanded
these to include South Korea,
Pakistan, and Thailand. To cap off
this anti-China strategy, the US
strengthened ties with Taiwan or
Nationalist China, with which
the former had official diplomatic ties.
In the 1950s, American power and
credibility deteriorated somewhat
in the Cold War. Its own people,
who began to oppose McCarthyism
and the blunt anti-communist policies
of John Foster Dulles, the American Secretary
of State in the Eisenhower Administration,
helped to undermined national prestige.
In 1953, Josef Stalin,
the Soviet leader, died. These events
helped to bring about a shift
in direction in American foreign policy.
The United States began to
look more to Asian events as
major threats to America's national security.
The Iron Curtain was firmly established
in Europe, and NATO forces provided
secure protection on the western side
of the curtain. For the time being,
things looked fairly stable in Europe.
In the East, because of
the end of the Korean War and
the exodus of the French from
Indo-China, things were not
as stable. The American political
elite contended that the foremost
problem was the vacuum left
by the French withdrawal from Indo-China.
To officials in the United States,
this void must not be filled
by another communist regime.
The realization of objectives
of the domino theory (the essence
of which was, that if not checked,
countries in an given area
will all gradually fall to
communist rule) could not be
allowed to perpetuate. The Chinese Revolution
had established a communist regime
in the most populous country
in the world, and the tensions
between North and South Korea
were not going to go
away overnight. Success of
the domino theory looked more likely
in Asia than in Europe.
The United States felt that
it needed to concentrate its energies
and resources in Asia.
American policies, during the 1960s
and early 1970s, essentially were
to prevent communist takeovers in Asia,
particularly in South Vietnam
and Taiwan. American policy
was to contain communism where
it already existed, while simultaneously
coexisting peacefully with its cold war
communist rivals. Military expenditures
increased as defense budgets went
sky high with democratic and communist
bureaucracies building huge arsenals
or inventories of high velocity,
even supersonic destructive nuclear weapons,
in a very fragile polarized world.
Even China tested a thermal
nuclear weapon in the early 60's.