| From the founding of new China to the 1960s, it was Cold War period of intense antagonism and confrontation of two camps of socialism and capitalism.Because of the fundamental differences of social systems and ideologies between the United States and China, in addition the obstacles between two countries in culture and language, the United States pursued a tough policy of containment to the new China, so it had been in the state of isolation and extremely hostile between the two countries, without normal diplomatic relations, full of mutual suspicion, mistrust and fear from each other.And when Johnson Government took office replacing of Kennedy Government by the end of 1963, in order to continue to contain China and communism in Southeast Asia and to prevent the occurrence of the so-called "domino effect", it inherited several previous governments' policy that to interfere in Vietnam and increased the size and extent of interference. Johnson Government implemented short-term retaliatory bombing to North Vietnam, sent ground troops into the Vietnam combat,escalated the Vietnam war from "special war" which launched from the Kennedy era to"local war";And since then it continued to augment troops to the South Vietnamese on a large scale, implemented a large-scale durative bombing to North Vietnam,bombed of Hanoi and the the railway targets in the vicinity of China and Vietnamese border,and continued to escalated the Vietnam War.And in this period China did tit-for-tat, resolutely opposed Johnson Government to interfere in Vietnam's internal affairs,and austerely warned them not to escalate the Vietnam War unlimitedly, firmly assisted and support ed North Vietnam and South Vietnam National Liberation Front,and secretly sent voluntary troops to North Vietnam including air defense, engineering, railway and logistic support and so on.The long-standing mutual estrangement and hostility between the United States and China,together with the rapid intensification of Sharp contradictions of stance and policy on the issue in Vietnam,made the relations between the two countries continued of tension,and it was extremely likely that they would faced with a Korean War-like direct military conflict.But through the U.S.-China ambassadorial talks of this period,which was an effective and important platform for the transmission of information and communication channel and bridge, the United States and China affirmed their respective positions, views, and ideas, clarified the intention,explained the proposal on the issue of Vietnam, understood each other's stance, views, and ideas, tested and found out of the "hand" of the other side's Vietnam policy,and basically succeeded in the Suns. Througn the U.S.-China ambassadorial talks,Johnson Government declared their important responsibility and duty that helped to defend the independence and freedom of the person of South Vietnam and their staunch position to fight against the North Vietnam and the communism invasion, and expounded that their ultimate target was to make South Vietnamese can choose the form of their future political,economy, and other social organizations. At the same time it showed that its objectives of Vietnam was limited which was that the United States was only to defend the South Vietnamese, not to send troops to invade North Vietnam even to destroy or subvert the North Vietnamese regime,also had no intention to expand Vietnam war to China, and didn't want to have direct military conflicts with China.After the United States be entangled in the Vietnam war quagmire, on several occasions it expressed its willingness to actively seek a peaceful solution on the issue of Vietnam and dished out moderate posture to China,hoped that on the issue of Vietnam China could change the tough attitude that opposed to the peace negotiations and political compromise,and to give support to their peace negotiations efforts, even hoped that China would make the issue of Vietnam to the political arena from the battlefield using its influence.Through the U.S.-China ambassadorial talks,China declared that China and North Vietnam were socialist allies and the neighbouring countries and China and Vietnam are the two peoples such as the hand-foot-brother, in addition taking into account national security interests, therefore, the United States'aggression against Vietnam was aggression against China, the Chinese people would not sit idly by and watch,China firmly supported and assisted the Vietnamese people's struggle against the United States and National Salvation,the United States Would face serious consequences if it unlimitedly escalated the Vietnam War. But China had also made clear its limitation of the target,which was that only when the United States sent troops to invade North Vietnam directly, aggressed or subverted against the North Vietnamese regime, even expand the invasion of Vietnam war and imposed it on China, China would send troops to Vietnam; China also declared that its purpose was defensive in nature, and it would not take the initiative to provoke a war with the United States,but if the United States made the invasion of Vietnam war expand to China, the Chinese people would struggle to the end.China also affirmed that on the Vietnam issue it opposed to any political compromise, opposed to the United States'conspiracy and fraud of peace talks, reiterated that the only solution to the Vietnamese correct path is to implement the 1954 Geneva agreement, to stop its aggression in South Vietnam and withdraw all of the United States'and its Minion States'armies, to stop the bombing of North Vietnam and other war action,to let the Vietnamese people solve their own problems and so on, to acknowledge that the National Liberation Front was the only truly representative of the South Vietnamese and must have a decisive say, to acknowledge that Hanoi's four point stance and FNL's five propositions constituted the sole basis to resolve the Vietnam problem.Thus, when the United States and China formed their strategies,they both seriously considered the other side's reaction,did everything possible to avoidmisunderstanding,misreading,misjudgment,misleading of the other,maintained restraint and caution in the actual actions,strained every nerve to limit the expansion of the scale and scope of the Vietnam War.When the United States carried out armed intervention in the South Vietnam, it limited the aggression to the North Vietnam to the scope of bombing and not greatly send troops to the North Vietnam,no more burned the war to China, strongly avoided that its provocation led to China's open interference in the Vietnam War.And although China has actively give the moral and material support and assistance to the north and the FNL, which was mainly confined to safeguarding China's national security,in addition,China had adopted a secret way which was to send volunteers troops to assist the North Vietnam, and didn't openly declare war on the United States. Ultimately, the United States and China avoided a recurrence of the North Korea war-like direct military conflict in the Vietnam War.And the facts that the United States and China communicated and exchanged on the issue of Vietnam through the ambassadorial talks so as to avoid direct military conflicts proved that even if the two countries which had no normal diplomatic relations, in the state of isolation and hostility and seriously antagonism of ideology and national interests, still could enhance mutual understanding and reduce barriers through effective communication and exchanges,even reduce or avoid direct military conflict which would be caused by misunderstanding and misjudgment of intent of the other side. This provided experience and mirror in dealing with conflicts and crises for the United States and China,and paved the way for the two countries'relations which ultimately moved toward dialogue and easing from war and confrontation.Since then, the dialogue and communication between the United States and China gradually replaced confrontation, isolation and direct military conflicts.And in the 1970s, the United States and China eventually established formal diplomatic relations thinking of its own strategic interests and according to changes in the international situation. |
