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STRAIT TALK: United States-Taiwan Relations and the Crisis with China. By Nancy Bernkopf Tucker. Cambridge (MA) and London: Harvard University Press, 2009. xii, 390pp. (Maps, illus.) US$35.00, cloth. ISBN 9780-674-03187-6.
The normalization of US relations with China in the latter stage of the Cold War was an enormously challenging process requiring tough-minded American leaders to make difficult decisions. The change in existing US relationships was often negative and profound, and none more so than die US relationship with Taiwan.
Professor Nancy Bernkopf Tucker is equally tough minded in providing the definite historical account of this process of change in her masterfully researched assessment of the twists and turns and behind-the-scene manoeuvres in US-Taiwan relations since die start of the Cold War. Readers will find her unsparing in penetrating die positive rationales and excuses used by US leaders in order to discern core realities, critical weaknesses and shortcomings in American policy. She is equally perceptive in critically assessing the manipulation and self-serving tactics of Taiwan's leaders. The evidence she musters to make her judgments is truly impressive with over 100 interviews with key actors in the US-Taiwan-China relationship over the past 30 years, reinforcingjudgments gained from...