Throughout the period of Eurasian tension, points of consensus among American allies on export controls were few and fleeting. Despite grievances and shifts in U.S. China policy throughout the Cold War, the United States maintained allied consensus — an accomplishment contrasted by the current fraying of alliances. Since 1960, however, China’s trade had begun to recover, with trade with the “Free World” offsetting a downturn in trade with “Communist Countries.” During the Cold War, American strategy in general benefited from institutional legitimacy with COCOM and allied confidence, even as U.S. export control policies were fluid in light of a dynamic Sino-American relationship. On a strategic level, it is incumbent on the United States to devise a durable strategic objective.