Dancing with his 'Lesser Evil' -Mao's China from 1962-68 and the road to rapprochement with the United States

In the 1960s, a growing number of opinions from scholars, experts in international affairs and policymakers in the United States advocated for a policy adjustment toward Communist China. The military and political conundrum resulted from the Vietnam War and the still ongoing confrontation with the Soviet Union prompted Washington to develop a conciliating relationship with Beijing. China was cool to U.S. overtures to rapprochement, with anti-U.S. imperialism remaining a main foreign policy orientation, but adjusted its policy at the end of the decade. Many factors contributed to Beijing's final positive response to U.S. overtures, both from the U.S. side and the Chinese side. This study illustrates how the political infighting in the central leadership of the Chinese Communist Party influenced Chairman Mao Zedong's view of the relationship among Washington, Moscow and Beijing, and accordingly shifted China's foreign policy from allying with the Soviet Union to rapprochement with the United States.