Asia First: China and the Making of Modern American Conservatism

Well-argued and thoroughly researched, Joyce Mao's Asia First underscores the significance of the Asia First movement in conservative circles throughout the Cold War. Mao explains how Asia Firsters, those who demanded that U.S. foreign policy emphasize the Pacific as much as (or more than) Europe and the Atlantic, were distinct from the broader China Lobby in seeing China as one possible avenue for pushing conservatism beyond isolationism and into internationalism. In the years following Chiang Kai-shek's escape from mainland China to Formosa, the Republic of China (ROC) had proven itself friendly to both capitalism and Christianity. Additionally, the loss of the Chinese mainland to the Communist People's Republic of China (PRC) proved to be an adequate motive to criticize the Truman administration on grounds that it had not done enough to save China from the Communists. Presenting the ROC as Free China would provide the catalyst needed to turn traditionally...