CHINA BOYS: How U.S. Relations With the PRC Began and Grew. A Personal Memoir

Nicholas MD Platt

Description

China Boys offers a close-up, worm's-eye view of the U.S. opening to China and the pioneer days in U.S.-China relations that followed. Diplomat Nicholas Platt describes preparations for the historic Nixon visit to China in 1972 and the interplay within the U.S. delegation during the visit itself. He recounts setting up America's first resident diplomatic office in the PRC, headed by David Bruce, and first encounters between Americans and Chinese, including Olympic athletes, orchestra maestros, Members of Congress, airplane manufacturers, bankers, scientists, and inner city youths. He further reveals the forging of the first links between the Pentagon and the People's Liberation Army following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and shows how these all these diverse practical ties later evolved into today's huge and crucial relationship. He also examines the role played by nongovernmental organizations like the Asia Society in building U.S.-China relations.

"Nick Platt, a key participant when the Pentagon and the PLA began to talk to each other in 1979–80, illuminates the beginning of what is becoming the key relationship in the world's military balance."
–HAROLD BROWN, U.S. Secretary of Defense, 1977–81

"China Boys is a timely, enlightening, and entertaining book by a distinguished U.S.-China relations insider who was with Nixon and Kissinger at the beginning and has enjoyed a ringside seat ever since. . . . Ambassador Platt provides valuable perspective and context for today's debate, as his engaging storytelling, keen insights, and wicked wit carry the reader through four decades of U.S.-China friendship, friction, and frustration."
–JAMES MCGREGOR, author, One Billion Customers: Lessons from the Front Lines of Doing Business in China, and former Wall Street Journal China Bureau Chief

Sujets

• Historical
• Lettres et linguistique
• Biography
• Autobiography

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 21 février 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456603588
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 18 Mo

Extrait

China Boys

ADST-DACOR DIPLOMATS AND DIPLOMACY SERIES Series Editor: MARGERY BOICHEL THOMPSON

Since 1776, extraordinary men and women have represented the United States abroad under all sorts of circumstances. What they did and how and why they did it remain little known to their compatriots. In 1995 the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training (ADST) and Diplomatic and Consular Officers, Retired, Inc. (DACOR) created the Diplomats and Diplomacy book series to increase public knowledge and appreciation of the role of American diplomats in world history. The series seeks to demystify diplomacy through the stories of those who have conducted U.S. foreign relations, as they lived, influenced, and reported them. NICHOLAS PLATT’s China Boys, 38th in the series, fulfills these aims brilliantly.

OTHER TITLES IN THE SERIES

HERMAN J. COHEN,Intervening in Africa: Superpower Peacemaking in a Troubled Continent CHARLES T. CROSS,Born a Foreigner: A Memoir of the American Presence in Asia WILSON DIZARD JR,Inventing Public Diplomacy: The Story of the United States Information Agency BRANDON GROVE,Behind Embassy Walls: The Life and Times of an American Diplomat PARKER T. HART,Saudi Arabia and the United States: Birth of a Security Partnership JOHN H. HOLDRIDGE,Crossing the Divide: An Insider’s Account of Normalization of U.S.-China Relations CAMERON R. HUME,Mission to Algiers: Diplomacy by Engagement DENNIS KUX,The United States and Pakistan, 1947–2000: Disenchanted Allies JANE C. LOEFFLER,The Architecture of Diplomacy: Building America’s Embassies

WILLIAM B. MILAM,Bangladesh and Pakistan: Flirting with Failure in Muslim South Asia ROBERT H. MILLER,Vietnam and Beyond: A Diplomat’s Cold War Education DAVID D. NEWSOM,Witness to a Changing World RONALD E. NEUMANN,The Other War: Winning and Losing in Afghanistan HOWARD B. SCHAFFER,The Limits of Influence: America’s Role in Kashmir ULRICH STRAUS,The Anguish of Surrender: Japanese POWs of World War II JAMES STEPHENSON,Losing the Golden Hour: An Insider’s View of Iraq’s Reconstruction NANCY BERNKOPF TUCKER,China Confidential: American Diplomats and Sino-American Relations, 1945–1996

China Boys

How U.S. Relations with the PRC Began and Grew

A Personal Memoir

NICHOLAS PLATT

An ADST-DACOR Diplomats and Diplomacy Book

Washington, DC

Copyright 2009 Nicholas Platt, All rights reserved.

Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com http://www.eBookIt.com

ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0358-8

The views expressed in this manuscript are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, official policy, or positions of the Government of the United States, the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, or Diplomatic and Consular Officers, Retired, Inc.

New Academia Publishing/VELLUM Books, 2010

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system.

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Control Number: 20109221730 ISBN 978-0-9844062-2-7 paperback (alk. paper)

To my marvelous, adventurous wife, Sheila, who rode with me the whole way

Sheila Maynard Platt, Hong Kong, 1965

From now on, you China Boys are going to have a lot more to do.

––Richard M. Nixon, Shanghai, February 28, 1972

Contents

Prologue Notes on Sources 1 Choosing Diplomacy 2 Choosing China

3

4

5

6

Learning the Chinese

Watching China

The Cultural Revolution

Signs and Signals 7 Office Manager for the Secretary of State 8 Preparing for China 9 China at Last: Nixon in Beijing 10 Trouble in the U.S. Delegation 11 Birth of the Bruce Mission 12 The Liaison Office Starts Work 13 Shepherd of Sports 14

Family Liaison 15 Collecting China

16 Waiting, Watching, and Welcoming 17 The Politics of Music

18 Kissinger Comes 19 Death and Departure 20 Renewal in Japan 21 Becoming an Asia Hand

22 The Pentagon Meets the PLA 23 America Greets the PLA 24 The Perry Mission 25 Change and Move On: Fast Forward

26 The “Best Embassy on ParkAvenue” 27 China Boy Redux 28 Safe in a Clinch Notes