Williams, author of Negros with Guns, for example, lived in exile in Beijing between 19, publishing his newsletter The Crusader and extolling liberation struggles around the world, led by China. More explicitly “friendly” to China were militant African American civil rights activists who adopted Mao’s teachings in their armed resistance against white supremacists. When tens of thousands of young Americans picketed in front of the White House in 1965, the People’s Daily enthused: “Facts opened the eyes of the American people, making them realize… that US monopoly capital and the US government serving it are the real enemies of the American people.” They seemed to personify the Chinese pipe dream that Americans who were “awakened” would one day topple the government in a socialist revolution. Americans could be “friends” if they loathed US “imperialists” as vehemently as Chinese did.īeijing made countless “friends” with antiwar protestors. With the Vietnam War threatening a showdown with the United States, Beijing tried to accentuate the distinction between the “reactionary” US government and the good American people who resisted it. Paradoxical as it may sound, this enmity toward US “imperialists” coexisted with affinity for American “friends” in the Chinese mind. Posturing as apostles of Chinese revolution, Red Guards pledged to fight in Vietnam once ordered by Mao. The campaign lighted the fuse of the Cultural Revolution. When the Vietnam War escalated in 1964-1965, the “Resist America, Aid Vietnam” campaign engulfed China, and “ US aggressors, get out of Vietnam” became a mantra that could be heard anywhere. The handshake, however, also marked an important continuity from the previous decade. The unwinding of Mao’s last revolution enabled the chairman to shake hands with Nixon, something unimaginable just a few years before. When Mao found the movement getting out of control, he declared its conclusion in 1969. Red Guards – revolutionary students who devoutly followed the chairman’s orders – wreaked havoc on both urban and rural China. Historians point to the end of the Cultural Revolution, a nationwide political campaign instigated by Mao in 1966. He struck a deal with the lesser evil to fend off the greater evil.īut how could Mao pull off such a deal after two decades of intense anti-US propaganda? Sensing the imminent threat of Soviet invasion, Mao decided to improve Sino-American relations as a hedge. The deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations in the 1960s climaxed with the border conflicts of 1969. The fundamental cause for this about-face was national security. On February 22, 1972, however, the People’s Daily printed a picture of Mao’s handshake with Nixon, which must have confused countless readers. Beijing’s propaganda machine had instructed the masses to hate US “imperialists” for more than twenty years. If Nixon’s televised announcement of his trip to China dazzled Americans, the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party Mao Zedong’s invitation to “the most reactionary person in the world” baffled Chinese. He even won a landslide victory during the 1972 presidential race. A well-known anti-communist, Nixon could do so without arousing too much conservative wrath. The Cold War in East Asia was coming to a close.Īn American proverb goes: “Only Nixon could go to China.” Even with the same conviction as his – “ There is no place on this small planet for a billion of its potentially most able people to live in angry isolation” – a Democratic president might not have been able to fly to China for fear of political repercussion. Although the Americans and the Chinese wrangled over many things for seven days, not least the status of Taiwan, ruled by the Republic of China, they eventually signed the Shanghai Communiqué, which stated that the two countries no longer considered each other an enemy. This February marks the 50th anniversary of Richard Nixon’s 1972 trip to the People’s Republic of China. Careers, Fellowships, and Internships Open/Close.Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition.Science and Technology Innovation Program.Refugee and Forced Displacement Initiative. The Middle East and North Africa Workforce Development Initiative.Kissinger Institute on China and the United States.Nuclear Proliferation International History Project.North Korea International Documentation Project.Environmental Change and Security Program.Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy.
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