AMERICA'S CHINA SOJOURN: UNITED STATES FOREIGN POLICY AND ITS EFFECTS ON SINO-AMERICAN RELATIONS, 1942-1948

The recent foreign policy controversies of the Carter Administration have served to highlight many of the weaknesses of United States foreign affairs decision making. The ineffectiveness of America's response to world events is not a recent phenomenon. The patterns begun by United States policymakers in the 1940s have come to haunt their modern day counterparts. Nowhere has this been more evident than in Asia. The policies that guided American involvement in China, Korea, and Vietnam still hang around America's neck like a great albatross.; President Carter's recognition of the People's Republic of China in January 1979 reminds us that for three decades American leaders clung to a policy which ignored political realities. However, this was not a policy arrived at overnight. It was something born out of the American wartime posture, both in Europe and Asia.; My work is an analysis of the events and circumstances in China from the beginning of World War II to the election of 1948. It reveals how the United States foreign policy during this era affected the relationship between China and America. Within this context, I have also examined the decision making process of the Roosevelt and Truman Administrations.; Ultimately, the American foreign policy pattern, which placed European affairs far above those of the rest of the world, ignored the importance of the growth of postwar nationalism, first in Asia and later Africa. These shortsighted policies have been due, in large measure, to the tendency of American leaders to ignore the advice of experts in the field. Instead they have generally chosen to rely on the suggestions of men who have reached positions of authority in foreign affairs due to domestic political expediency rather than experience in foreign policy.; This work uses the resources of both Roosevelt and Truman Presidential Libraries, as well as the resources of the Hoover Institute and National Archives. It bridges the two administrations as few other works have done. It also updates those who have with recently declassified documents from the Truman Library. In short, it is the story of America's China Sojourn from 1942 to 1948.