Revolutionary Resurgent Power The State Department Rethinks China Policy

REVOLUTIONARY RESURGENT POWER THE STATE DEPARTMENT RETHINKS CHINA POLICY 

Two key State papers prepared in 1969 provide a good account of its representation and assessment of China during this period. The first was a discussion paper on the proposed February Warsaw talks prepared by the Asian Communist Affairs desk (ACA) for Nixon the second was a China policy study undertaken between February and August in response to NSSM 14, which was to be the first detailed statement of the Nixon administration s China policy.  

Paul Kreisberg, DoS discussion paper on Warsaw talks, 4 February 1969, Box 1973, CFPF(i967-9), RG59, NA, p. 3. Kreisberg was a China specialist who had been involved in the Warsaw talks since 1965. 

Proceeding from this familiar revisionist disconrse, however. State developed policy probes that signified notable departures from those of the 1960s. ACA recommended that at the renewed Warsaw talks, the United 

This take on China policy reflects Nixon s approach in his 1967 Foreign Affairs article, discussed in the previous chapter. However, while Nixon emphasized the need for continued containment of China in the short run. State was more focused on constantly probing for evidence of changes in Beijing s attitude that would allow reconciliation. Kreisberg, discussion paper on Warsaw talks, p. 12,. 

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