![]() ![]() Integral also was Nixon’s conclusion that the risks of confrontation with the Soviets were acceptable, that U.S.-China relations would not wreck but improve U.S.-Soviet relations in time. was committing to a major permanent role in Asia and to Asia’s future. could not be simultaneously abandoning Southeast Asia in ways unthinkable in Europe or any other theater actually valued by Americans. ![]() was to serve the role as counterweight to the USSR in Asia, the U.S. Nixon’s ongoing effort to attain ‘peace with honor’ in Vietnam was integral to the China opening. policy of not meddling in the Sino-Soviet split to one of intervening in it, to bolster China’s autonomy and independence in the face of serious Soviet threats. Ground battles along the Soviet- Chinese frontier began in March and climaxed that August, the month that Nixon decisively shifted the U.S. There are estimates that by 1969, the Soviets aimed as many nuclear forces at the Chinese as they had aimed at NATO. What many forget is that the Soviets spent the decade of the 1960s attempting to isolate China and to prevent anyone from disrupting their effort to force Mao and the Chinese back into their alliance with the Soviets that China had more or less withdrawn from as early as 1960. Yet Nixon’s companion objective was also to advance detente with the Soviet Union. First, it required ongoing efforts to de-escalate Vietnam, looking towards a ‘peace with honor.’ It entailed the risk of defying the Soviets who, by 1969, were engaged in a border war with China which many feared was prelude to a Czechoslovakia-style invasion of the country. tensions with both the Chinese and the Soviets?Īccentuating the surprise and shock value of the event, Nixon’s China initiative entailed significant risks and required careful preparation. In my opinion, it stands as one-if not the most important-of a number of defining Cold War era events including the Potsdam conference, Mao’s victory in China, the Eisenhower-Khrushchev summit, the Cuban Missile crisis, and the four Reagan-Gorbachev meetings.ĭid Nixon’s China success ease U.S. Long range, it pointed the way towards a multipolar order and a global economy as well as a major trading partnership between the U.S. ![]() Near term, the China trip formalized China’s final and formal break with the so-called Socialist Commonwealth. Gone, or soon to be gone, were key features of the Cold War: the division of the world into two hostile camps chronic nuclear tensions periodic proxy wars. The trip itself was a dramatic step in furtherance of the new ‘structure of peace.’ It signified that the world was transitioning from the postwar era-the Cold War-towards something different, an international system in which the U.S. And while these interrelated objectives had been pursued from the start, I would say that the ‘opening’ of China was the lodestar, the central and most important of Nixon’s first-term objectives. had obtained a shaky peace in Vietnam, forged a strategic partnership with the People’s Republic of China, and entered a period of détente with the USSR. The foundations of the ‘structure’ were in place. And Nixon’s 1972 trip to China was prelude to one of the most eventful years in American history.īy the end of 1972, the war was within weeks of ending. Imminent fulfillment of these pledges was signified dramatically by Nixon’s arrival in Peking, which occurred 50 years ago this week. Likewise, Nixon spoke of a ‘new structure of peace.’ would be charting a new path in international affairs that would lead Americans and the world to a new and better place. What he generally meant-and what his audiences understood him to mean by his words-was that he would advance a strategy to ensure that, as the Vietnam war ended, the U.S. In 1968, at the height of the Vietnam war, Nixon campaigned on a pledge to ‘end the war and win the peace.’ Americans generally win wars to win the peace, and so the slogan has always lent itself to interpretation and misinterpretation of the Nixon campaign, along with long-standing inaccurate claims that Nixon also campaigned on a ‘secret plan’ for ending the Vietnam War. Was the opening to China the central objective of the Nixon presidency from Day One?
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