Richard Nixon in China

Essay Instructions:

Assignment Three (10 pp. double-spaced)—
(Drafts accepted for feedback VIA EMAIL until November 14)
Select the following U.S. foreign policy decision/event for which substantial declassified, formerly secret documents on internal policy-making are available: Richard Nixon’s trip to China and discussions with Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai in February 1972. Based on your choice, you may read (in addition to the already assigned materials) one of the following books (all roughly comparable in length) to familiarize yourself with the background material:
(3) Margaret Macmillan, Nixon in China: The Week that Changed the World
The declassified documents can be found in the relevant volumes of the series published by the U.S. State Department entitled Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS), available on-line at the State Department website (http://history(dot)state(dot)gov/historicaldocuments ); or go more directly by typing “FRUS” in a search engine such as Google.
for Nixon’s trip, go to FRUS, 1969-1976, Vol. XVII: China, 1969-1972.
For the event selected, compare one or more interesting aspects of the story as told by the declassified documents in FRUS with the version presented to the public in: a) The New York Times or The Washington Post (available on-line through the Historical NY Times or Historical Washington Post ).
The paper should discuss what the comparison suggests or implies about how U.S. foreign policy is made at top levels and how it is presented to the general public. What might explain any discrepancies between secret discussions or decisions and public statements? How well informed was the public (i.e., attentive newspaper readers) on what actually was going on?
ASSIGNED TEXTS:
Thomas Borstelmann, The Cold War and the Color Line: American Race Relations in the Global Arena (available on Electronic Reserves)
E.H. Carr, What Is History? (recommended); available on-line at https://archive(dot)org/stream/WhatIsHistory-E.H.Carr/historycarr_djvu.txt
Michael Dobbs, One Minute to Midnight: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and Castro on the Brink of Nuclear War (recommended) (available on Electronic Reserves)
Graham Greene, The Quiet American (recommended) (available on Electronic Reserves)
John Hersey, Hiroshima (recommended)(available on Electronic Reserves)
George F. Kennan, American Diplomacy (available on Electronic Reserves)
Robert F. Kennedy, Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis: available online at http://www(dot)self(dot)gutenberg(dot)org/articles/Thirteen_Days_(book)
Mark Atwood Lawrence, The Vietnam War: A Concise International History (available on Electronic Reserves)
Dennis Merrill and Thomas G. Paterson, eds., Major Problems in American Foreign Relations, Vol. II: Since 1914, 7th ed. (Cengage Learning, 2010)
Thomas G. Paterson et al., American Foreign Relations: A History, Volume 2: Since 1895, 8th ed. (Cengage Learning, 2015)
J. Samuel Walker, Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Use of Atomic Bombs Against Japan (available on Electronic Reserves)
Besides the texts mentioned above, class readings may include declassified U.S. documents, available on the website of the National Security Archive, and newly-available Russian, Chinese, and other communist-bloc materials from the publications of the Cold War International History Project, available free from the Project’s website (most easily found by typing “CWIHP” in a search engine and then going to “Publications”).
Please note that citations to documents should include both a full description of the document itself (author, title, date, addressee, etc.) and its location in the publication in which you found it.
For example: Memorandum of Conversation [Memcon], Subject: “Transition,” 9 August 1974, 10:47 – 11:10 a.m. in Kristine L. Ahlberg and Alexander Wieland, eds., Foreign Relations of the United States, 1969-1976, Volume XXXVIII, Part 1, Foundations of Foreign Policy, 1973-1976 [Hereafter FRUS Vol. XXXVIII, Part 1] (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2012), Document 38, https://history(dot)state(dot)gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76ve15p2/d62 Accessed 12 April 2020.
For subsequent citations from the same volume: Memcon, Subject: “US-Soviet Relations; Middle East, Emigration; Nuclear War,” Helsinki, 30 July 1975, 9:30 a.m., in FRUS Vol. XXXVIII, Part 1, Document 61, https://history(dot)state(dot)gov/historicaldocuments/frus1969-76v38p1/d61 Accessed 21 August 2020.
https://www(dot)chicagomanualofstyle(dot)org/tools_citationguide/citation-guide-1.html
https://libguides(dot)wvu(dot)edu/c.php?g=418946&p=2855023
https://history(dot)state(dot)gov/historicaldocuments

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Nixon in China
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Nixon in China
President Richard Nixon’s visit to China in the February of 1972 is considered one of the most iconic political statements in the history of the world following what that visit could bear diplomatically in decades to come. Nixon’s visit stemmed from a long-standing feud between the US and China. Upon the arrival of President Nixon in China, the focus was put on what could be the outcome of the surprise engagement. Primary among the aspects of focus was the media coverage of the visit. Media outlets engaged the public through television videos and newspaper prints in an attempt to update the public on the occurrences within China. The released documents of the visit by the U.S. State Department entitled Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) give detail of what transpired throughout the visit. This paper analyses the contents of that visit from the declarations in FRUS relative to the reports from the media. For purposes of this analysis, this paper will foster the publication by the New York Times titled “Nixon Talks Further with Chou and Drives to View Great Wall”. The findings of this analysis will conceal the extent to which the media was barred from the important elements of the visit and how the public was kept informed even though with only mild details.
The visit by Nixon to China was based on a range of factors that formed the basis of conversations in the media. The visit was preceded by a long-standing disagreement between China and the US. Partly, En-lai highlighted the vast differences between the nations at the initial meeting while receiving Nixon. According to MacMillan, the US and the People’s Republic of China had been battling for over 25 years before that meeting. En-lai highlighted what he believed to have been the cause of the disagreement as the many years of humiliation that the Chinese had endured at the hands of the outside world. Some of the cases cited by the premier were America’s position in the Korean War and the decades of fear since the Chinese became a republic in 1949. The primary element of the tension, according to En-lai was the prominence that China was gaining globally at the detriment of America. Other citations fostered the positions of both the US and China on matters of Indonesia and Taiwan.[MacMillan Margaret, Nixon and Mao: The week that changed the world (1st ed.). (Random House, 2007, 53)]
Nixon’s visit to China was highly explored by various outlets with FRUS divulging more details about the visit. According to MacMillan, Nixon had a wide range of meetings during his visit to China. Significant among the meetings was that with the then Chinese Prime Minister Chou En-lai. Both the official and media records indicate that Nixon met with the premier on two occasions. The first occasion was when the premier received the president at Peking. The reception at Peking airport was highly published in the media as it would outline the monumental handshake between the two leaders. The handshake was principally important as it set a reminder of the 1954 Geneva Conference in which America’s secretary of State at the time, John Foster Dulles, had ignored ...

Updated on January 26, 2024

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Richard Nixon in China

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