THE AMERICAN CHALLENGE 47military technology to China – officials felt confident that the Chinese
would never hand over secrets to their own enemies, the USSR and the
Warsaw Pact. In June 1983 Reagan officially recognized the People’s
Republic of China as a ‘friendly, non-allied country’ and worked for
the further relaxation of trade restrictions on commerce.^23
He and his officials simultaneously strove to prevent sales of any
equipment with a potential military use to the Soviet Union. America
and its allies since 1949 had operated an embargo regime through
their Coordinating Committee for Export Controls (or CoCom).
Goods that used advanced technology were regularly monitored.
American restrictions themselves were increased in 1975 when Presi-
dent Ford signed the so-called Jackson–Vanik amendment into law.
Senator Henry ‘Scoop’ Jackson and Congressman Charles Vanik were
seeking to penalize states which denied the right of free emigration to
its citizens. The USSR, which was refusing to let Jews leave the coun-
try, was the prime target. US companies generally complied with the
list of proscribed categories of products that CoCom drew up; but in
1980 Japan’s Toshiba Corporation secretly agreed to sell propellers to
Moscow that enabled submarines to move almost silently underwater.
This was a blatant violation of the rules; it also conflicted with Japa-
nese defence interests. Unsurprisingly, American politicians threatened
to apply a comprehensive ban on Toshiba’s freedom to trade in Amer-
ica.^24 Years of wrangling followed as the US Defense Department
highlighted the damaging consequences. Not even America had the
power to compel a foreign corporation to rip up a duly signed con-
tract. But its allies learned the lesson that the White House under
Reagan would not look gently upon further breaches of the embargo.
The American administration itself was inconsistent in its use of
trade as a means of constraining the Kremlin. The lifting of the grain
export embargo on 1 April 1981 relieved Soviet economic problems. A
few weeks earlier, as the effects of yet another bad harvest were regis-
tered, the central party leadership had introduced a decree to remove
the limits on the size of private plots on collective farms. Obstructions
to the personal purchase of livestock had been eliminated – and the
state bank was to make suitable credits available. There can be little
doubt that Carter’s agricultural embargo had made an impact here.
When Reagan revoked it, the party decree was immediately with-
drawn.^25
An American trade delegation of 250 business executives visited
Moscow in November 1982 despite the official state of mourning for