Discursive Foundations

SeeWestadetal.,eds., 77 Conversations, pp. 138-40, i76 Zhai, Chinaandthe Yietnani Wars, Chapter 9. 

See Stephen Hood, Dragons Entangled Indochina and the China-Yietnam War (New York, 1992) and William Duiker, China and Yietnam The Roots of Conflict (Berkeley, 1986). 

These discursive foundations were crucial, but they were fundamentally conceptual, and there remained the question of whether the two sides would act in accordance with their declared interests when put to the test. Thus, the establishment of an understanding that both sides desired new relations was accompanied by a keen awareness of the need to convince each other that they had the capacity and willingness to bring about this new relationship. The next chapter focuses on Kissinger s and Nixon s efforts to convince the Chinese by their policy actions that the developing norms of their new relationship applied not only in principle, but also in practice. 

Kissinger to Nixon The crucial factor... will be the Chinese judgment of our seriousness and reliability this litmus test will determine their future policy. Our essential requirement is to demonstrate that we are serious enough to understand the basic forces at work in the world and reliable enough to deliver on the commitments we make.  

Zhou to Nixon ... in view of the current interests of our two countries... we may find common ground. But this common ground must be truly reliable. It should not be a structure built upon sand, because that structure will not be able to stand. - 

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Laying the Discursive Foundations of a New Relationship, July ipyi to February 1972... 

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