Analysis On China's Foreign Policy Decision Making To Vietnam (1965-1972)

The years between 1965 and 1972 constituted a course evolving from a bipolar to multi-polar world structure in the international Cold War history. This period is highlighted as the time in which the United States formally involved in the Vietnam War reaching its acme. Meanwhile, it consisted of the multiple games involving Vietnam and the issue of Indochina carried out by great powers of China, the United States and the Soviet Union. It was also in this period that the People's Republic of China reconciled with the United States, while significant rifts between North Vietnam and its major supplier, China had been tearing wider. Not only that, Sino-Soviet relation also saw this deterioration even clashes. The academia has been probing the reason and course of these major changes from many aspects. The author has made attempts to began preliminary inquiry the models and course of China's foreign policy decision making from the angle of China's foreign policy decision making to Vietnam, centering on development and changes in Sino-Vietnamese relation in this period, in order to reveal the causes and course of development and changes of international relations within this timeframe from the analysis level of foreign policy decision making.This paper is consisted of four parts. The first part mainly surveyed the purpose and meanings in conducting research on China's foreign policy decision making, and the present progress of theoretical research in this field. The second part attempted to bring forth the author's view point about the models and course of change in China's foreign policy decision making mechanism at this time, based on the analysis on foreign policy decision making theories at hand. The third part set time as the main axis, the Siuo-Vietnam relations the center, two super powers of the United States the external variables, tracking China's foreign policy decision making towards Vietnam, analyzed the course of Sino-Vietnam relation gaming with the participation of the United States and the Soviet Union. Part four is the summary of the paper.The first part is composed of three chapters. Chapter one mainly talked about the purpose and meaning of this study. Chapter two surveyed the bibliography in this field of study and review of materials to date. Chapter three briefly summarized the defects of this paper. The fourth chapter mainly analyzed the conditions of China's decision making, including international and regional situation, chapter five the change of profiles in China's foreign decision making circle, and the characteristic analysis of key figures in the decision making circle. The sixth chapter brought forth model of China's foreign decision making in this period on the ground laid by the fifth chapter. Part three applying the model of China's foreign policy decision making proposed in the last chapter, studied the procedure of China's foreign policy decision making to Vietnam in two chapters, according to the time division of the year 1968. The nineth chapter is the fourth part, mainly discussed the gains and loses of this particular model of foreign policy decision making and the impact upon the Cold War history and profound impact on China's foreign policy decision making in the future.