The Evolution Of US Nuclear Policies Towards China (1953-1973)

During the Cold War, Sino-US relations had experienced highs and lows. The United States, based on its Cold War strategy and geopolitical considerations, had deployed distinct security policies towards China in different reigns in the period; of which, nuclear policies came out of most importance.To study the US nuclear policies toward China outlined during the Cold War period, it may help us deepen understanding of those policies, and also provide us some lights to comprehend and cope with such US policies in the post-Cold War era.In light of academic achievements and historical archives, this paper will sort out the US nuclear policies in the eras from Eisenhower to Nixon. In each era, these nuclear policies had different focuses. During the President Eisenhower era, the United States deployed the nuclear strike policies in the post Korean War, and threatened and blackmailed China in the first and second Taiwan Strait crisis. Under the reigns of the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies, the US reacted and mapped out countermeasures to China’s nuclear test. And under the Nixon administration, the US shifted its focus to nuclear arms control policies towards China. This paper will explore the causes and driving forces in the evolution of US’s nuclear policies toward China, and research the logic behind of the evolution.It argues that the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations in 1950s, the acquisition of nuclear powers by China in 1960s that created a more stable Sino-US nuclear relationship, and the balancing between US and Soviet nuclear forces, had collectively set off the evolution of Sino-US-Soviet triangular strategic relationship, and forced the US governments reevaluate the nuclear strategic values that had directly pushed changes of its nuclear strategy and policies towards China. These are clear threads of, and driving force to, the US’s changes in its nuclear polices toward China, and formed the logic behind such evolution.