Synopses & Reviews
The secret story, covering the years since Nixon's arrival in the White House, of how American leaders first courted China's Communist government -- partly out of eagerness to undermine the Soviet Union -- and then belatedly changed their minds after the Tiananmen Square massacre and the Soviet collapse.
James Mann, foreign affairs columnist for the Los Angeles Times, has based his investigative history on newly uncovered government documents and scores of interviews. He shows how Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger paid China's price for Kissinger's first visit in 1971 by secretly promising never to support independence for Taiwan; how the Carter and Reagan administrations worked to strengthen the People's Liberation Army; and how the United States and China teamed up in guerrilla operations in Afghanistan. He tells how Bill Clinton first cultivated and then abandoned the movement to restrict China's trade benefits in America.
A book that is sure to inform and influence the current debate on U.S. relations with China.
About the Author
James Mann, the author of Beijing Jeep, is a diplomatic correspondent and foreign affairs columnist for the Washington bureau of the Los Angeles Times. He lives in Silver Spring, Maryland.