Nixon arrives in China for talks

In an amazing turn of events, President Richard Nixon takes a dramatic first
step toward normalizing relations with the communist People's Republic of China
(PRC) by traveling to Beijing for a week of talks. Nixon's historic visit began
the slow process of the re-establishing diplomatic relations between the United
States and communist China.

Still mired in the unpopular and frustrating Vietnam War in 1971, Nixon
surprised the American people by announcing a planned trip to the PRC in 1972.
The United States had never stopped formally recognizing the PRC after Mao
Zedong's successful communist revolution of 1949. In fact, the two nations had
been bitter enemies. PRC and U.S. troops fought in Korea during the early-1950s,
and Chinese aid and advisors supported North Vietnam in its war against the
United States.

Nixon seemed an unlikely candidate to thaw those chilly relations. During the
1940s and 1950s, he had been a vocal cold warrior and had condemned the
Democratic administration of Harry S. Truman for "losing" China to the
communists in 1949. The situation had changed dramatically since that time,
though. In Vietnam, the Soviets, not the Chinese, had become the most
significant supporters of the North Vietnamese regime. And the war in Vietnam
was not going well. The American people were impatient for an end to the
conflict, and it was becoming increasingly apparent that the United States might
not be able to save its ally, South Vietnam, from its communist aggressors. The
American fear of a monolithic communist bloc had been modified, as a war of
words—and occasional border conflicts—erupted between the Soviet Union and the
PRC in the 1960s. Nixon, and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger saw a
unique opportunity in these circumstances—diplomatic overtures to the PRC might
make the Soviet Union more malleable to U.S. policy requests (such as pressuring
the North Vietnamese to sign a peace treaty acceptable to the United States). In
fact, Nixon was scheduled to travel to meet Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev
shortly after completing his visit to China.

Nixon's trip to China, therefore, was a move calculated to drive an even
deeper wedge between the two most significant communist powers. The United
States could use closer diplomatic relations with China as leverage in dealing
with the Soviets, particularly on the issue of Vietnam. In addition, the United
States might be able to make use of the Chinese as a counterweight to North
Vietnam. Despite their claims of socialist solidarity, the PRC and North Vietnam
were, at best, strongly suspicious allies. As historian Walter LaFeber said,
"Instead of using Vietnam to contain China, Nixon concluded that he had better
use China to contain Vietnam." For its part, the PRC was desirous of another
ally in its increasingly tense relationship with the Soviet Union and certainly
welcomed the possibility of increased U.S.-China trade.