ABSTRACT
Henry Kissinger's unending enthusiasm for a detente with Moscow worried the leaders in Beijing. Zbigniew Brzezinski, who finally pushed the process of normalization of the Sino-American relationship in 1978, seems to have assessed the Chinese thinking better than Kissinger had. There had been hardly any progress toward a normalization of relations between Beijing and Washington over the Taiwan issue. Consequently, China approved of Brzezinski, and he subsequently played a significant role in the establishment of full diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing in 1978. The Soviet worries about a far-reaching understanding between Washington and Beijing had subsided because of the slow progress of the process of normalizing relations between the two countries. The relationship between Washington and Beijing, which had begun with Richard Nixon's visit to China in 1972, was in danger of collapsing as a result of China's frustration with Washington and growing rift with Moscow.
