![]() ![]() The two countries are miles apart ideologically, and neither expects the other to embrace the same worldview. Unlike in the past, the Sino-Russian relationship is not hierarchical and does not require Russia’s unquestioning deference to China’s wishes. The assumption that the United States can drive a wedge between China and Russia is flawed. approach to the Sino-Russian relationship rests on the assumption that Russia resents its junior position vis-à-vis an ever more powerful China, and that such resentment - and Moscow’s mistrust of Beijing’s intentions - can be profitably exploited. Kupchan recently put it, “leave a bad marriage.” Stephen Blank argues that this “ever-greater disparity … may, in time, allow the and its allies to exploit Russian feelings of resentment and resistance to subordination.” If only the United States found a way to fuel Russia’s fears of China to the point where it might, as Charles A. The argument hinges on a seeming power disparity between a declining Russia and its ambitious and much more powerful neighbor. Important voices have called for a readjustment of America’s confrontational approach to Russia in a bid to play Moscow as a card against Beijing. This type of diplomacy for Nixon’s White House and the Soviets provided numerous advantages including: added secrecy to avoid leaks safety value for tensions and a linkage directly between the leaders for both countries.Fifty years after Henry Kissinger’s game-changing secret visit to China - which led to the Sino-American rapprochement and became a key turning point of the Cold War - there is no shortage of new would-be Kissingers. Moss concludes that Nixon’s back-channeling was necessary and effective, when it supplemented rather than supplanted traditional diplomacy. Other sources also included official records from Kissinger and Dobrynin and the books they authored on their work, and official government telephone transcripts from phone meetings. While there were several avenues of source material, the key source was in the Nixon Tapes. The sources for Moss were extremely important for building his research and writing his book. While the two men worked for countries that held vastly different ideals and goals, they worked together to accomplish much for the mutual benefit of both countries. They spoke so often, and built such a close relationship, that they had a secure phone installed to speak from their individual offices in the White House and the Russian Embassy. ![]() Moss detailed the relationship between Kissinger and Dobrynin. ![]() Nixon was successful though by ways of back channeling to China through a mutual alley, the leader of Pakistan, a dictator named Yahya Khan. Original attempts by Nixon to connect with China, and even President Lyndon Johnson’s attempts, had failed. Utilizing the example of Nixon’s successful normalization of diplomatic relations with China that had ceased for over two decades, Moss showcases how back-channels can be successful. Ambassador to NATO Richard Elsworth, with the Soviet Charge de Affairs Yuri Cherniakov and Henry Kissinger with Soviet KBG officer Boris Sedov. A main back channel was Foreign Policy Advisor Henry Kissinger, with the Soviet Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Dobrynin. It was through the lens of those definitions that Moss illustrated how President Richard Nixon communicated with the Soviets, without the participation of the U.S. Moss formed the foundation of his lecture by providing definitions for diplomacy and back channel: diplomacy was ‘ the profession, activity, or skill of managing international relations, typically by a country’s representatives abroad‘ and back channel was ‘ a means of communication which circumvents official channels, especially in order to facilitate informal or clandestine negotiations‘. Moss is an expert on the Nixon Presidential recordings, and previously served as a historian at the U.S. Richard Moss is an associate research professor at the United States Naval War College’s Center for Naval Warfare Studies specializing in U.S. Moss explores the central role that confidential diplomacy played in shaping America’s foreign policy during this critical era.ĭr. His book draws on newly declassified documents as well as the Nixon Tapes. Richard Moss reveals through Nixon’s Back Channel to Moscow the behind-the-scenes deliberations of Nixon, his advisors, and their Soviet counterparts. Ford Presidential Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Historian Richard Moss presented his new book Nixon’s Back Channel To Moscow: Confidential Diplomacy and Detente on Octoat the Gerald R. ![]()
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