| This dissertation seeks to examine one Senator's influence on the executive branch in the area of US-China policy during the years 1945--1958. A review of the scholarly literature on this subject reveals that historians have looked to congressional influence as one explanation of America's twenty-five year period of conflict with Communist China following the Second World War. In particular they have singled out the China Lobby, a special interest group active during this first decade of the Cold War, as pressuring two administrations---Truman and Eisenhower---into adopting policies leading to conflict with Communist China. I focus on one key member of this lobby, Senator William F. Knowland of California. Coming to terms with Knowland's role in the China Lobby allows me to question the existing scholarly consensus. This dissertation makes it clear that Knowland, and by extension the China Lobby, exerted little influence on the US-China policy of either the Truman or Eisenhower administrations. Those scholars who argue otherwise have greatly exaggerated the Senator's impact on policy decisions and, in turn, the impact of the China Lobby. Ultimately, this dissertation argues that these administrations crafted their China policy largely independent of this pressure group, with the possible exception of its criticism of the White Paper, and its enhanced influence immediately following the Korean War and during the emergence of McCarthyism. |
