| This is a history of Mao Zedong's perceptions of the United States and their impact upon Sino-American relations. While trying to describe the United States according to Mao Zedong, efforts were also made to examine the United States' China policy as it was and to find out how Mao's perceptions interacted with it. It is the history of U.S.-China relations from the perspective of one man whose life was China's recent history writ large and whose leadership had made and broken Communist China.; This dissertation tries to puncture the bamboo curtain of the Oriental-cum-Communist secrecy and to determine how Mao really thought and felt about the United States. It traces the evolution of the way in which the United States was perceived by Mao as well as by his comrades and people. It reviews all the facts or distortions of fact used by Mao and his propaganda apparatus to justify and sustain China's blatant anti-Americanism. It is an effort to decipher the whole process by means of which Mao interpreted American history, society, economy and politics and how, under his direction, Chinese media, political analysts, cultural workers and party leaders assessed and portrayed the United States.; The study is divided into seven chapters. Chapter I, "The Early Encounter," is a brief review of the early formulation of Mao's view of the United States, from his school days to the September Eighteenth Incident in 1931. Chapter II, "The Aborted Courtship," traces Mao's view of the United States from 1932 to July 1945. Chapter III, "The Road to Confrontation" covers the period from August 1945 to 1949. Chapter IV, "The Confrontation," focuses on the most serious crisis in Sino-American relations--the Korean War. Chapter V, "The Crises," examines Mao's responses to the United States from 1954 to 1959. Chapter VI, "Oppression and Rebellion," recaptures Mao's mindset in times of "oppression" from both the United States and the Soviet Union from 1960 to 1965. Chapter VII, "The Rapprochement," covers the period from 1966 to 1972. Mao's attitude toward the United States in his last years, from 1973 to 1976, is documented in the "Conclusion."... |
