Strategic Vigilance: Mao's “Anti-Peaceful Evolution” Strategy and China's Policy toward the United States, 1959–1976

Abstract In late 1959, Mao Zedong publicly articulated his Anti-Peaceful Evolution strategy in response to U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles's promotion of the “peaceful evolution toward democracy” in a series of recent speeches. Mao's new strategy, which was heavily influenced by the internal and external pressures he faced, became the ideological foundation of his ultra-radical, uncompromising policy toward the United States. This article analyzes the influence of his anti-revisionist ideology and permanent revolution theory, as well as the distorting effects of incoming information. Mao was intent on countering Dulles and undercutting U.S. foreign policy more broadly.