President Nixon at the Great Wall during his trip to China, 1972.
Volume V – Number 1
A. Doak Barnett
Abstract: As the conflicts in Vietnam and Laos persist, this article uses historical references and trends to predict US foreign policy problems and challenges in East and Southeast Asia in the 1970’s. The configuration of power and influence the United States will face in Asia will be very different in significant respects from that in the past. Relationships in the region are no longer viewed in terms of a delicate, dangerous balance between two monolithic groups of bitterly hostile adversaries, which presents a valuable opportunity for the United States. Because of the changing power balance and transition to multipolarity in Asia, the United States has the opportunity for substantial political and economic maneuvering to promote US interests in the region while avoiding hostility. After predicting the direction of East and Southeast Asian countries in the 1970’s, the author goes on to suggest amenable foreign policy in order to form, maintain, or better US relationships with major powers involved in the region, such as the Soviet Union, China and Japan.
Keywords: United States, China, Japan, Russia, Soviet Union, 1970’s, Vietnam, War, Foreign Policy, Asia
