Does China Want War?
Abstract
The current U.S. policy of containment of Communist China is based on the assumption that China is an aggressive power with expansionist aims. This policy is basic to U.S. support of South Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and South Korea. Dissenters from this policy deny that China is expansionistic and explain her behavior as nationalistic, seeking influence, trying to become a model communist state, and maintaining her security. Historians have pointed out that China has always had expansionist aims, and that every great Chinese empire from the Han through the Manchu has endeavored to "march to the tropics." The present regime is following this historic pattern by conquering Tibet, invading India's northern frontier, and supporting insurgency throughout Southeast Asia. China is developing atomic weapons and her behavior appears designed to make her a major world power, anxious to export a Chinese model of organization and cultural values. China's foremost foreign policy objective is to achieve big power status and concomitantly expel the United States from Asia, thereby exercising hegemony over those Asian nations that are now pro-western. She also desires to transform the nations of the earth into Communist states according to the Chinese model and regain territory in Asia that she once possessed. These objectives bring her into conflict with both the United States and Soviet Russia. Vietnam has become a test case for China and the United States and as such the war is always in danger of escalating into a major conflict. Because of weaknesses in air and naval forces, and no deployable atomic weapons, China at present cannot challenge the United States in an all-out war. But she does have the capability of supporting "wars of national liberation" in Asia and is sponsoring and supporting insurgencies in Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia. Mao sees guerrilla warfare as the inevitable path for Communist victory.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 22, 1966
- Accession Number
- ADA488149
Entities
People
- Herbert L. Duncan
Organizations
- United States Army War College