ABSTRACT
American preoccupation in its national security policy with European concerns belatedly but finally seems to be waning. There is a new awareness of East Asian economic dynamism and the criticality of the Pacific rim countries to international security. The United States must predicate its East Asian policy on the irrefutable premise. To the Nixon administration must go the first credit for recognizing that the old bi•polar world was beginning to fade away as Weston Europe, Japan and China joined the United States and the Soviet Union as great centos of world power. The problem of allocating security burdens and roles between Japan and the United States has not gotten the attention accorded the trade issue. The Reagan government, convinced that former Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone wanted to cooperate with the United States, has not insisted that Japan undertake its “fair share” of the mutual security burden.
