The Working Thesis

 

“Shifting American political ideals and Nixon’s and Kissinger’s compassionate realist approach sparked Sino-American rapprochement.”

I intend to limit the scope of my paper from February 1, 1969 to the Shanghai Communique.

Notable quotables (and supporting evidence!) from The United States and China in the 20th Century, by Michael Schaller:

1. “Until 1969, few foreign policy experts in Washington were prepared to accept or understand China’s fear of being pinned between Soviet and American power” (164).
2. “The decision by Nixon and Kissinger to pursue a new relationship with China faced a peculiar problem in Washington. Ever since 1949 all planning and policies regarding China were conditioned by the fact of Sino-American hostility..the McCarthy era showed what could happen to an individual within those hostile structures who might argue that our national interest within these hostile structures who might argue that national interest was not well served” (165).
   

   Nixon, Mao, and Kissinger

3. “Important changes were taking place in the perceptions that Peking and Washington had of each other. Despite the new involvement in Cambodia and Laos, American ground troops were being gradually withdrawn from Vietnam… Meanwhile, CHina witnessed the ominous buildup of Soviet conventional and nuclear forces all along its northern border. The Chinese leadership saw this as a much more immediate threat to their nations security” (166).
4. “Soon after Nixon’s election, Peking suggested publicly that ‘peaceful coexistence’ should be pursued by America and China” (167).
5. “In late October [of 1970], during a news conference, Nixon made reference to the ‘People’s Republic of China.’ This marked the first time an American president had publicly used the real name of the Peking regime: implicitly it acknowledged the legal existence of that government” (168).
6. “Nixon’s initiatives toward Peking were made possible, in part, by a new mood in the United States. As informal contacts with China became more common, few Americans stood up to denounce the perfidy of dealing with ‘godless Red China'” (170).