Martin B. Gold – författare

As 1979 dawned, President Jimmy Carter extended diplomatic recognition to the People’s Republic of China. upending longstanding U.S. foreign policy in Asia. For thirty years after the triumph of Mao’s revolution, the United States continued to recognize the claim of the Republic of China, based on Taiwan, to govern the entire country. Intricate economic and cultural relations existed between Washington and Taipei, backed by a Mutual Defense Treaty. While Carter withdrew from the treaty, satisfying a core Chinese condition for diplomatic relations, he presented Congress with legislation to allow other ties with Taiwan to continue unofficially. Many in Congress took issue with the President. Generally supportive of his policy to normalize relations with China, they worried about Taiwan’s future. Believing Carter’s legislation was incomplete, especially regarding Taiwan’s security, they held extensive hearings and lengthy debates, substantially strengthening the bill. The President ensured the measure comported with the terms of normalization. He negotiated with Congress to produce legislation he could sign and Beijing could at least tolerate. Although the final product enjoyed broad consensus in Congress, fights over amendments were fierce, and not always to the President’s advantage.Passage of the Taiwan Relations Act stabilized America’s position in Asia and its situation with Taipei, while allowing the new China to be properly launched. Now in its fourth decade, the Act remains highly impactful on the leading bilateral relationship in the world.The United States Constitution makes Congress the President’s partner in shaping American foreign policy. The Taiwan Relations Act of 1979 vividly demonstrates how robust congressional engagement and inter-Branch cooperation leads to stronger and more durable policy outcomes, which enjoy a greater degree of public acceptance.

For nearly a century and a half, Americans lived by a powerful tradition in which no President served more than two terms. Then came Franklin Delano Roosevelt, restricted by custom but not by law, who won a third term in 1940 and a fourth in 1944. Believing that the broken norm would be breached again, the Republican-controlled eightieth Congress acted to restore it, passing a constitutional change in 1947 to formalize an absolute limit on presidential tenure. Ratified in 1951, the Twenty-second Amendment created a lame-duck out of every two-term incumbent since Truman and has had an enormous effect on the institution of the Presidency, public policy, and national politics. Critics believe the Amendment diminishes the presidential office; however, Martin B. Gold contends it serves to maintain checks and balances central to the American Constitution while examining Presidents and term limits, from the spirited debates in the Constitution Convention, the role of custom in an unwritten Constitution, and the Twenty-second Amendment itself.

The Senate is a place where political minorities and individual members hold great power, resting on authority drawn from Senate rules and over two hundred years of related precedents and traditions. The minority has and will always have a clear and important voice on issues brought to the Senate floor, and it is this distinction from the majority rule of the House that has enabled the Senate to work as well as it has since our democracy's inception. Now in its fourth edition, Senate Procedure and Practice explains why and how the Senate has worked for more than 200 years. It includes the updated modifications of procedures governing Senate debate, amendment rights, and the formation of conferences. The book is filled with fascinating stories and insights that highlight why certain rules are in place, how they are practiced, and the ways in which those practices have changed throughout history as our federal government and the needs of our electorate have evolved. Anyone with an interest in the pillars of Senate procedure and practice will find a useful companion in this book.

The Senate is a place where political minorities and individual members hold great power, resting on authority drawn from Senate rules and over two hundred years of related precedents and traditions. The minority has and will always have a clear and important voice on issues brought to the Senate floor, and it is this distinction from the majority rule of the House that has enabled the Senate to work as well as it has since our democracy's inception. Now in its fourth edition, Senate Procedure and Practice explains why and how the Senate has worked for more than 200 years. It includes the updated modifications of procedures governing Senate debate, amendment rights, and the formation of conferences. The book is filled with fascinating stories and insights that highlight why certain rules are in place, how they are practiced, and the ways in which those practices have changed throughout history as our federal government and the needs of our electorate have evolved. Anyone with an interest in the pillars of Senate procedure and practice will find a useful companion in this book.

Locked in a common fight against Imperial Japan, the United States and Nationalist China became allies, but significant fissures in their relationship soon developed. Neither ally would accommodate each other’s core interests in strategies necessary to win the war. This disconnect continued after Japan’s surrender, as the United States pressed Chinese Nationalists and Communists to join a coalition government that neither wanted. During the civil war, the United States supported the Nationalists, but never to the degree they thought mattered. After the Communist triumph, America served its national security and anti-Communism, by helping the Nationalists defend Taiwan, but hedged against assisting Chiang Kai-shek to reconquer the mainland. Twice in the 1950’s tensions in the Taiwan Strait nearly expanded into nuclear conflict.