ABSTRACT
A stream of Chinese visitors to America soon followed the Nixon-Kissinger breakthrough in US relations with China in 1972. First came officials of the Communist regime, then scholars, both carefully selected for ideological reliability, in far greater numbers than the Soviet visitors during the period of détente. Anti-Soviet, or rather anti-Russian feelings were by now deeply ingrained in the Chinese Communists. More important, playing the "American card" was obviously of much greater advantage to Beijing. To be sure, contemporary China was ruled by even older oligarchs; but that practice was in keeping with tradition, and Beijing's oldsters, certainly Deng, appeared full of vigor. The decrepitude of the Soviet rulers could not be concealed from the Soviet people or the outside world: in newsreels Brezhnev could be seen being hauled in and out of planes by his security guards. For all of its impressive military might and vast resources, the Soviet empire entered its stagnation phase during the Brezhnev era.
