ABSTRACT
Back in the 1950s, a common slogan of conservative Republicans was “Who lost China?”, intended to pillory those in American foreign policy-making-particularly the Truman administration and even liberal Republicans-who in 1949 allegedly allowed one-fourth of humanity to slip into communist hands. Of course China was never ours to lose, nor did the critics propose a workable alternative policy other than coddling the corrupt regime of Generalissimo Chiang-Kai-Shek, which was probably the least likely way to prevent the communists from winning the civil war. But there was no denying the enormity of the loss. “Who lost China?” became a very effective political slogan that could quickly separate friend and foe in the US. The sudden estrangement in 2002/2003 between the US and Europe, not just with the governments of Germany and France, but with 70-80 percent of the public in all European nations-including those of President Bush’s “coalition of the willing”—may well leave a similarly lasting cleavage in the world. To be sure there are striking differences as well: Even though there were slogans among the American military such as “First Iraq then France,” military clashes between Old Europe and the US are very unlikely whereas the Korean War actually brought the armies of communist China into lethal confrontation with American forces in the early 1950s. And there was no equivalent in Sino-American relations then to the various motives that induced the 18 governments of “New Europe” to endorse the American war in Iraq in the face of their unwilling citizenry, not to mention the American allies Britain and Spain which also faced large anti-war majorities at home, at least initially.
