The China Diary of George H. W. Bush by Bush George H. W. Engel Jeffrey A

Author:Bush, George H. W., Engel, Jeffrey A. [Bush, George H. W., Engel, Jeffrey A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781400829613
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVEN

“There Is No Credit in This Work”

June 3 to July 4, 1975

Bush spent June in Beijing, enjoying a visit from his children and preparing for the moment that would epitomize his diplomatic style while in China: the massive Independence Day party he coordinated for Beijing’s diplomatic corps at the USLO. Previous July Fourth celebrations had been understated affairs, for fear of offending Chinese sensibilities. That year Bush invited China’s leading diplomats to his residence for a staid, formal celebration on July 3. But the next day he threw the gates of the USLO open for a picnic, complete with bunting, balloons, hot dogs (and buns imported with the State Department’s aid), Coca-Cola, and raffles. The purpose was to show off American values, he told his journal. “We had American flags around and I am confident it conveyed the right kind of impression about our country.”

With much of the city’s diplomatic corps away for the summer, this was a particularly quiet period in Bush’s tenure in China, and in the diary itself. “Still quiet on the diplomatic front,” he noted in late June. Family and friends visited, and he saw more of Beijing and outlying areas. With the fall of Saigon no longer dominating the headlines, Bush found more time to consider Beijing’s broader public stance toward Washington and the West, and increasingly he did not like what he saw. “I remain convinced that China is making a big mistake in continuing to thrash away at us,” he told his diary. Every day seemed to bring more rhetorical assaults, even as the few Chinese leaders he managed to see during these weeks repeated warm overtures for better relations. “The experts say [of the fiery rhetoric], ‘well it’s less than they used to do,’” he noted, “‘and you’ve got to understand they need to put out rhetoric,’ and some of that is true. But it is a funny way to show a desire for better relations. And I get fed up with it right up to the teeth.” Bush considered consistency of private and public diplomacy a priority. He had clashed with the Machiavellian Kissinger, in large part because of the latter’s penchant for secret dealings and diplomatic doubletalk. He found Chinese rhetorical assaults frustrating, and they reinforced his own desire, if ever afforded the chance, to speak his diplomacy clearly, loudly, and with a singular message. “In essence they say ‘look at what we do, not at what we say.’ They feel they must keep their Third World leadership by slugging us all the time. But I can just imagine how they’d feel if an official government organ took after them the way they take after us all the time.”

It is difficult to read Bush’s diary from these weeks without sensing his growing frustration with this job, and with his own limited place within Washington’s decisionmaking circles. He feared that American public opinion might turn against Beijing if its rhetorical attacks ever drew the full attention of the American media,

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.