The China Threat: Memories, Myths, and Realities in the 1950s

Nancy Bernkopf Tucker confronts the coldest period of the Cold War--the moment in which personality, American political culture, public opinion, and high politics came together to define the Eisenhower administration's policy toward China. In her sophisticated account, she convincingly portrays Eisenhower's private belief that close relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China were inevitable and that careful consideration of the PRC should constitute a critical part of American diplomacy. Tucker provocatively argues that the Eisenhower administration's hostile rhetoric and tough actions toward China obscured the president's actual views, and she deftly explores the contradictions between Eisenhower and his advisors' public and private positions. Ultimately, Tucker finds Eisenhower's strategic thinking on Europe and his fear of anticommunist domestic politics constrained his leadership, making a fundamental shift in U. S. policy toward China difficult, if not impossible.