Conflict, contact, and coexistence: Sino-American relations, 1948-1960

This dissertation seeks to consider the Sino-American relations from late 1948 through 1960. Those years, beginning with the victorious drive of the Chinese Communist Party to power and ending with the open division between Beijing and Moscow, are among the most arduous, complex, and controversial in the history of Sino-American relations. A relationship of such complexity and intricacy demands due attention and keen analysis. Historians and political scientists, Chinese and other, have provided important insights on that relationship. Yet, individual case studies, some in an extended form, comprise the mainstream of scholarship in this field. The perspective is either Sinocentric or America-focused. Few works have emerged as balanced comparisons of both countries. This study joins Chinese and American perspectives from a middle ground, post-Cold War vantage point, to examine the interrelationship of elements that shaped the difficult journey of Sino-American relations in time. Interaction and comparison inform the keynote of examination.To this end, the story unfolds in a chronological-thematic fashion and is based upon research of first-hand sources from both sides, especially a plethora of declassified Chinese archives. Eight chapters form the text to illustrate a difficult road of conflicts and contacts China and the United States traversed during the late 1940s and 1950s. What happened between the two countries is woven together in historical, cultural, strategic and political connections.