Two weeks ago, President Donald Trump made a second trip to the People’s Republic of China. These visits still seem historic, as Trump is only the eighth American president to visit a country that for so long isolated itself from the world. While the success of the president’s most recent trip is still being debated, historically speaking, there is one trip to China that stands above the rest in significance and importance: Richard Nixon’s visit in 1972.
The most tragic aspect of Nixon is that he could have gone down in history as one of America’s greatest presidents if he had not allowed paranoia and secrecy to destroy his accomplishments. There is no greater proof of this than his official visit to China.
There was no greater enemy of communism than Nixon, but he was also shrewd enough to recognize an opportunity when he saw one. While the Soviet Union and China were the two great communist powers, that did not mean they always saw eye to eye. Beginning in the 1950s, the two superpowers were feuding politically and ideologically.
By the time Nixon took office, America had cut all ties with Communist China and instead supported the government in exile on Taiwan after the Chinese Revolution in 1949, an issue that is still contentious with China today. The United States also had indirectly fought Chinese forces during the Korean War and was currently fighting a proxy war in Vietnam against a communist government supported by both China and the Soviet Union.
Once in office, Nixon quietly sent diplomatic feelers to China and began publicly using its official name, the People’s Republic of China. These gestures paid off when Mao Zedong invited Forrest Gump and the American table tennis team to China for exhibition matches in 1971, an event that became known as “Ping-Pong Diplomacy.” It was the first American delegation to visit China since the communist revolution, and it opened the door to future communication between the two nations.
Then, in 1972, Nixon, who once had accused political opponents of being too soft on communism, shocked the world when he became the first U.S. president to visit China. The visit not only reshaped global politics but also influenced the balance of power during the Cold War. The trip demonstrated how diplomacy could replace conflict and showed that international alliances could shift even between ideological enemies.
Nixon, with the help of his National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger, showed remarkable foreign policy skill by accomplishing several major goals. Opening diplomatic relations with China helped drive a wedge deeper into the already-struggling relationship between China and the Soviet Union. The two communist nations disagreed over ideology and leadership of the communist world, and the Soviets worried that if the United States and China improved relations, the Soviet Union would be isolated. Nixon’s strategy of “triangulation” worked perfectly. Soon afterward, the Soviet Union invited Nixon to Moscow, making him the first American president to visit there as well. During that visit, Nixon signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT I), which, while not ending the nuclear arms race, reduced tensions and paved the way for future arms control agreements.
When Nixon ran for president in 1968, one of his most important promises was to end the Vietnam War. Part of his plan was called “Vietnamization,” which reduced American troop levels while replacing them with trained South Vietnamese forces. At the same time, Nixon secretly escalated the war by bombing communist supply routes in neighboring countries such as Cambodia and Laos in hopes of demonstrating American strength and determination. However, perhaps the most important part of Nixon’s strategy was improving relations with China, North Vietnam’s most important ally. Once Nixon made inroads into both China and the Soviet Union, North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh and his government had no choice but to come to the table and negotiate. This eventually helped lead to a ceasefire agreement and the Paris Peace Accords in 1973. If not for the Watergate scandal, things might have ended much differently in Vietnam.
Nixon’s trip to China was important because it transformed international diplomacy during the Cold War. It improved relations between two longtime enemies, increased American leverage against the Soviet Union and North Vietnam, and opened the door for China’s rise as a major global power. The visit proved that diplomacy could achieve results that military conflict could not, making it one of the most significant foreign policy events of the 20th century. This is why Watergate was so tragic. Nixon’s paranoia and downfall were so great that they overshadowed the remarkable accomplishments of his presidency, especially his achievements in foreign policy.
James Finck is a professor of American history at the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma. He can be reached at james.finck@swoknews.com. Thanks to the Southwest Ledger and the Lawton Constitution for sharing his column.
