ABSTRACT
The United States (US) had been a special friend to China for a quarter of a century or more. Washington regarded the Republic of China as the most important country and America's best ally in East Asia. The Soviet challenges to Carter's foreign policy were particularly salient in Asia. The "loss of China" translated into hostility toward the People's Republic of China, or "Communist China." Taiwan was also a major obstacle to a Washington-Beijing rapprochement. The US tried to persuade Chinese leaders in Beijing to renounce the use of force in the Taiwan area in order to remove the impasse. In 1970, the US withdrew the 7th Fleet from the Taiwan Strait. Defeat in Vietnam in 1975 proved to be a major disappointment to the US Better relations with Beijing had been built to a large degree on the assumption that China would help the US get out of Vietnam honorably.
