ABSTRACT
The last years of the twentieth century will be remembered as a difficult time in U.S.-China relations, a time of conflict, confusion, and crisis. Even as both countries grew more prosperous and the international environment after the Cold War more benign, there emerged growing fears of escalating tensions between them. Moreover, although leaders in each capital spoke of the need to work together, they proved unable or, perhaps, unwilling to make the necessary compromises, leaving areas for cooperation unduly limited. Cassandras went so far as to talk about a new Cold War that would, once again, set nuclear armed powers against each other in what would be a delicate balance of terror for the whole world.
