Winning the Third World: Sino-American Competition during the Cold War
Winning the Third World: Sino-American Competition during the Cold War examines afresh the enduring rivalry between the United States and China during the Cold War. Gregg A. Brazinsky shows how both nations fought vigorously to establish their influence in newly independent African and Asian countries. By playing a leadership role in Asia and Africa, China hoped to regain its status in world affairs, but Americans feared that China’s history as a nonwhite, anticolonial nation would make it an even more dangerous threat in the postcolonial world than the Soviet Union.
Overview
Winning the Third World: Sino-American Competition during the Cold War examines afresh the enduring rivalry between the United States and China during the Cold War. Gregg A. Brazinsky shows how both nations fought vigorously to establish their influence in newly independent African and Asian countries. By playing a leadership role in Asia and Africa, China hoped to regain its status in world affairs, but Americans feared that China’s history as a nonwhite, anticolonial nation would make it an even more dangerous threat in the postcolonial world than the Soviet Union.
Gregg Brazinsky is Associate Professor of History and International Affairs at The George Washington University. He is also the author of Nation Building in South Korea: Koreans, Americans and the Making of a Democracy. He was a visiting fellow at the Wilson Center in 2010-2011 and is a senior adviser to the History and Public Policy Program's North Korea International Documentation Project and a member of the advisory board of the Asia Program's Hyundai Motor-Korea Foundation Center for Korean History and Public Policy. The Washington History Seminar is co-chaired by Eric Arnesen (George Washington University) and Christian Ostermann (Woodrow Wilson Center) and is sponsored jointly by the National History Center of the American Historical Association and the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. It meets weekly during the academic year. The seminar thanks the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations and the George Washington University History Department for their support.
Moderators
![Christian Ostermann](/sites/default/files/styles/square/public/media/uploads/images/christian_ostermann.jpg)
Christian F. Ostermann
Woodrow Wilson Center
![Eric Arnesen](/sites/default/files/styles/square/public/media/images/person/eric_arnesen.jpg)
Eric Arnesen
Professor of History, The George Washington University. Director, National History Center of the American Historical Association.
Hosted By
History and Public Policy Program
The History and Public Policy Program makes public the primary source record of 20th and 21st century international history from repositories around the world, facilitates scholarship based on those records, and uses these materials to provide context for classroom, public, and policy debates on global affairs. Read more
Cold War International History Project
The Cold War International History Project supports the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments on all sides of the Cold War. Through an award winning Digital Archive, the Project allows scholars, journalists, students, and the interested public to reassess the Cold War and its many contemporary legacies. It is part of the Wilson Center's History and Public Policy Program. Read more
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