Though these threats were often empty, the superpowers so feared losing ground against one another that they quickly catered to the whims of smaller countries.
“The very compulsiveness with which the Soviet Union and the United States sought to bring such states within their orbits wound up giving those states the means of escape,†Mr. Gaddis wrote. “Tails were beginning to wag dogs.â€
Mr. Duterte’s actions call to mind, for example, Josip Broz Tito, the Communist leader of Yugoslavia who broke with Moscow in the Cold War’s first years by declaring himself “nonaligned.†The United States rewarded him with economic aid; the Soviet Union, desperate to keep Tito from joining NATO, rewarded him with autonomy and shows of respect.
In the end, Tito won concessions from both sides, enhanced his image at home — and remained in the Communist fold. Rather than becoming a victim of the Cold War, he exploited it to his advantage.
Mr. Duterte, likewise, distanced himself from his American sponsors just enough that China, eager to win him over, offered him $9 billion in low-interest loans and allowed Filipino fishermen to return to certain disputed waters in the South China Sea. Yet Mr. Duterte returned home to a country that is still protected by the United States military.
“China didn’t woo Duterte. Duterte wooed China,†M. Taylor Fravel, a political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said of the deal in a Twitter post.
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