The American response to the development of Chinese nuclear weapons: A study in the evolution of perception and policy.

摘要

Starting with an historical overview of the relationship between the United States and the People's Republic of China, this study reviews and analyzes the American response to China's development of nuclear weapons. American governmental and popular responses to the first six Chinese nuclear tests between 1964 and 1967 are tracked through the period which saw the basic pattern of the U.S. response established. Congressional debates and other official government records covering the eras of American presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard M. Nixon, as well as representative samples of articles from American national magazines, city newspapers, films, novels and songs are content analyzed.; Unlike most analyses of American nuclear policy, this study focuses on the cultural issues that influenced and sometimes controlled the decision-making process at both the administrative and legislative levels of government. As a study of American perceptions, it integrates and explains the seemingly contradictory matrix of negative images which on the one hand denigrated the achievements of Chinese technology while at the same time stressed the dangers of a China led by an irrational, erratic, and irresponsible government.; It is concluded that the response of both the American government and the American people to China's development of nuclear power was uniformly colored by stereotypes that developed in the previous century. The U.S. responded to China's nuclear development by dredging up nineteenth century notions that Chinese are not human in the same way as western peoples; that they are cruel, sadistic, and soulless warriors who do not value life or other sacred principles of humanity.