Containment and cooperation: continuity in U.S. policy toward the People's Republic of China during the Cold War

© 2004 Minh Manh TrinhPresident Nixon's 1972 visit to the People's Republic of China (P.R.C.) was a critical milestone in the history of Sino-U.S. relations. The move put an end to two decades of mutual hostility and opened up a period of strategic cooperation between the two countries. The significance of the event is so often stressed that it creates an impression that there are two distinct periods of U.S. policy toward the P.R.C. - containment during the 1950s and 1960s and strategic cooperation in the 1970s and 1980s. This thesis challenges this conventional wisdom. It finds that the United States has continuously contained the P.R.C. throughout the Cold War but it has also been willing to cooperate to achieve important interests. Of course there are differences of emphasis that allow us to distinguish the period before the Nixon visit from the period that followed after, but American strategists have never regarded the choice between cooperation and containment as mutually exclusive. Both goals have been pursued simultaneously. The thesis is structured around the following key arguments relating to the relationship between the United States and the P.R.C.: • During the 1950s and 1960s, containment was the dominant dimension in U.S. Asian policy but cooperation between the two states to achieve specific objectives was also important. • During the 1970s and 1980s, the United States viewed the P.R.C. as a strategic partner and worked closely with it in confronting the Soviet Union; nevertheless, containment was an important U.S. goal during this period and remained an integral part of its calculations in its dealings with the communist state. • Overall, throughout the Cold War, containment and cooperation were pursued together as part of a continuous U.S. strategy in confronting the Chinese communism. The thesis shows the importance of the relationship between the United States, a world superpower with interests in the Asian region, and the P.R.C., a regional communist power that is able to do both harm and good to the former's interests