Washington's China: The National Security World, the Cold War, and the Origins of Globalism (Culture, Politics, and the Cold War)
China is the subject matter of this book, but it is also the focus used by the author to analyze and dissect internal, highly classi ed American ideological explanations and justifications for its evolving strategies toward the entire 'communist bloc' throughout the Cold War.... Above all, Peck's study shows us the roots of American 'globalism' -- its tendency to see the entire world as a single chessboard, much as the Marxist-Leninists did, rather than to deal discretely with different situations.(Chalmers Johnson, author of The Sorrows of Empire:Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic)Controversial and provocative, Peck's passionate book is now an indispensable part of the literature on the modern history of US-China relations.... The dynamic mental world of those responsible for the United States' policy towards China that Peck has reconstructed is powerfully and compellingly asserted as never before.(The International History Review)In this new examination of U.S.-China policy, based in part on recently declassified intelligence documents, James Peck explains that the "visionary globalism" of American policy makers mandated a hostile attitude toward China in order to give the United States time to implement plans for restructuring the Asian economy along liberal-capitalist lines.(Journal of American History)Washington's China is a must-read book, not only for those interested in U.S.-China relations during the cold war years, but for understanding the global outlook that guided U.S. foreign policy-making in those years, especially policies toward socialist and Third World regimes.(Critical Asian Studies)Peck's careful dissection of how and why China moved to the very center of American foreign policy transforms one's understanding of the post-1945 world and enables an understanding of the present. The challenge Chinese independence posted to America's Asian order is as sharp today as it was in 1949. Washington's China eloquently and with great insight explains why.(Marilyn B. Young, author of The Vietnam Wars, 1945--1990)This stunning review and interpretation of the National Security culture that has dominated policy-making since World War II is a remarkable achievement. It is almost impossible to believe the ideological fanaticism of the 'wise men present at the creation' and their successors revealed by Peck's richly documented and perceptive inquiry, their 'systematic inability to come to terms with the virulence and pervasiveness' of the 'visionary globalism' driving their strategic policies, which he more than amply demonstrates. It is startling to observe how for decades, the distorting prism of doctrinal rigidity was able to refract an image of China, and the world, that served the international and domestic goals to which the National Security Community was passionately dedicated, no matter what the evidence, no matter how circumstances changed. The picture that emerges is both painful and frightening, not least because of its bearing on what is happening in the world right before our eyes.(Noam Chomsky, author of Failed States:The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy)James Peck's incisive and masterful analysis of hitherto largely secret intelligence documents goes beyond U.S. policy toward China per se to illuminate the ideals, ideologies, code words, and delusions that shaped global strategy from World War II into the 1960s. Washington's China is a splendid guide for understanding how much has changed in the relationship between the two powers since then -- and how much still remains unchanged where the core vision of American globalism is concerned.(John W. Dower, author of Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II)