SINOU.S. RECONCILIATION AND CHINAS VIETNAM POLICY (1971-1973) Shen Zhihua and Li Danhui (98) Chinas foreign policy in the early 1970s bogged down in the conflict between reality and ideology. As for the war in Vietnam, ideology demanded Chinas sup port of Vietnams antiAmerican struggle, while reality called for a SinoU.S . reconciliation. As a result, Chinas Vietnam policy shifted from resolutely opp os ing peace talks and supporting Vietnamese resistance through to the end to a pru dential attitude of agreeing to peace talks without Chinese involvement and, lat er on, of advising Hanoi to sign the Paris peace agreement as soon as possible. While China continued to help Vietnam in its struggle for unification through pe ace talks, the Soviet Union, too, gave more support to, and hence gained more in fluence on, Vietnam. Relying on its position of strength, Moscow finally won ove r Vietnam to its side in the SinoSoviet hostilities.