Korean War to Nixon Shokku: Roles Reversed, Again!

Early in the Cold WarCold War, the CPCCommunist Party of China (CPC) ousted the KMTKMT. As the US-Japan dyad confronted the Sino-Soviet ‘bloc,’ the Korean War polarized the triad. Japan’s anxiety to revive its China trade challenged America’s ‘China differential’ restrictions, until Richard NixonNixon, Richard delivered a shock. Identifying China as integral to Soviet ‘threats,’ TrumanTruman, Harry had redrawn Washington’s Far Eastern defenses. China’s Korean War role made US-PRC hostility unavoidable, with Japan a loyal subaltern whose defense-burdens troubled USG. French losses in Indochina drew Washington deeper into nationalist/communist struggles. Eisenhower’sEisenhower, Dwight and Kennedy’sKennedy, John covert-campaigns led Johnson into counterinsurgency warfare. Nixon inherited a despised war with China an adversary and Japan, a forward base. To ‘honorably’ cauterize this hemorrhage while deterring Soviet expansionism, NixonNixon, Richard reversed US calculus of Sino-Japanese strategic weightage. His secret China initiative, mirroring Beijing’s Soviet-rooted fears, promoted China and marginalized Japan, transforming the bipolar systemic-core into a proto-triad.