Relations between China and the United States have been of central importance to both countries over the past half-century, as well as to all states affected by that relationship—Taiwan and the Soviet Union foremost among them. Only recently, however, has the opening of archives made it possible to research this history dispassionately. The eight chapters in this volume offer the first multinational, multi-archival review of the history of Chinese-American conflict and cooperation in the 1970s.

On the Chinese side, normalization of relations was instrumental to Beijing's effort to enhance its security vis-à-vis the Soviet Union and was seen as a tactical necessity to promote Chinese military and economic interests. The United States was equally motivated by national security concerns. In the wake of Vietnam, policymakers saw normalization as a means of forestalling Soviet power. As the essays in this volume show, normalization was far from a foregone conclusion.

Contents
 
 
 
 
 
 Preface vii
 Gong Li
 Contributors xv
 Introduction 1
 William C. Kirby, Robert S. Ross, and
Gong Li
1In Pursuit of a Modus Vivendi: The
 Taiwan Issue
 and Sino-American Rapprochement,
 1969-1972 9
 Robert Accinelli
2China's Domestic Politics and the
 Normalization
 of Sino-U.S. Relations, 1969-1979 56
 Li Jie
3Prizes Won, Opportunities Lost: The U.S.
 Normalization
 of Relations with China, 1972-1979 90
 Rosemary Foot
4The Difficult Path to Diplomatic
 Relations: China's
 U.S. Policy, 1972-1978 116
 Gong Li
5The Soviet Factor in Sino-American
 Normalization,
 1969-1979 147
 Wang Zhongchun
6Vietnam and Chinese Policy Toward the
 United States 175
 Li Danhui
7Taiwan's Policy Toward the United
 States, 1969-1978 209
 Jaw-ling Joanne Chang
8Soviet Policy Toward the United States
 and China,
 1969-1979 252
 Vitaly Kozyrev
 Reference Matter
 Notes 289
 Index 355