The Mongolian Factor: Kennedy’s Shift to a China Policy of Limited Flexibility

From the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 until the end of the Eisenhower administration in 1961, the United States consistently pursued a comprehensive anti-China policy. Subsequently, US foreign policy towards China entered a nearly two-decade period of vacillation. In the early stages of the Sino-Soviet alliance’s disintegration, the Kennedy administration began to contemplate revising its China policy, even developing relatively long-term plans. This endeavor marked the genesis of a shift in US policy toward China. This paper examines the Kennedy administration’s approach to the Mongolian issue, analyzing the evolving US attitudes towards China as reflected in two key events: the attempt to establish diplomatic relations with Mongolia and Mongolia’s admission to the United Nations. It further explores the limited flexibility of the Kennedy administration’s China policy, which remained largely dominated by Cold War thinking.