Foreign Policy in the Nixon Presidency Essay

History will inevitably forgive Richard Nixon. Despite his obvious unlawful mistakes, he made a good president. Until 1968, most Americans saw Richard Nixon as a political has-been, a dour pre-McCarthy hunter of Communists. In 1968, however, Nixon won the Presidency by presenting himself as a healer of divisions. He demonstrated that he had greater ability to reinvent himself than any other modern politician. More than any other figure between the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt and his own resignation in 1974, Nixon was the pivotal postwar President. The architect of detente, he also was the President who ordered secret bombing raids on Laos and Cambodia and then invaded Cambodia. The architect of the conservative

According to Tony McConnell, Nixon was the first president to consider a basic income and was the originator of the Environmental Protection Agency (28). Just like any other president, Nixon made his own policies and impacts on America. Another noteworthy topic of Nixon’s legacy is his foreign policy. McConnell notes that “it could only have been… [Nixon] to make common cause with the Chinese against the Soviet Union” (29). Nixon established nuclear arms control with Russia during the Cold War and establish the diplomatic openings with

President Richard M. Nixon’s administration had to face many international and domestic challenges in the United States between 1968 and 1974, some positive and some negative. His achievements in expanding peaceful relationships with both China and the Soviet Union are contrastingly different with his continuation of the Vietnam War. In the end, Nixon’s scandals and abuse of presidential power caught up to him, and his administration did much to corrode America’s faith in the government.

In 1960’s America was becoming divided at home and struggling to understand the America’s intervention in foreign nations especially South Vietnam. When Nixon took office he wanted to quiet the protests, he wanted to get America out of Vietnam and focus on the falling economy at home. Thus Nixon purposed a period of relaxation with the Soviet Union. “ Nixon and Kissinger hoped that such a relationship, which they deemed détente would lessen the threat of nuclear war, encourage the Soviets to pressure North Vietnam into a peace settlement.” (Gillon p. 1114) “ President Nixon and Henry Kissinger wanted to abandon the costly pursuit of weapons superiority and instead focus on peaceful economic competition.” (Gillon p.1114)

The policies enacted by American leaders were very effective in Europe, but failed to help Asia. In 1945, much of China had been corrupted by communism rule. Under the command of Mao Zidong and funding provided by the Soviet Union, Mao was able to take over China easily and corrupt much of its neighbor, Asia (Document F). Failing to prevent the corruption of Asia, the United States began to combat the oncoming fear and concern at

Nixon had made it known that the communist world would consist of soviet union and china. President Nixon mainly wanted to gain advantage by exploit everyone else. Richard had a policy better known as the triangular diplomacy. China knew that the united states had much to off with this policy put in place. An american veto had been put in place this would cause a block on admission on china to the united nations.

During Nixon's administration in 1972 relationships with china was improved. This was effective in not only a friendship with china but it also concerned the Soviet Union. If the Soviet Union and china no longer had ties with allies, the Soviet Union would be less active in their organization. This action leads to President Nixon's Détente Which meant "relaxing" or in the situation the easing of Cold War tensions. Détente also

As president, Nixon's achievements included forging diplomatic ties with China, the first president to do this, and the Soviet Union. He was responsible for withdrawing US troops from an unpopular war in Vietnam. However, Nixon's involvement in Watergate tarnished his legacy and deepened American cynicism about government. Richard Milhous Nixon's born on January 9 1913, in Yorba Linda, California. He was the second of five sons of Francis Anthony Nixon (1878-1956). FRANCIS NIXON STURGGLED TO EARN A LIVING RUNNING A GROCERY STORE AND GAS STATion with his wife, Hannah Milhous Nixon (1885-1967). His mother was a Quaker, who had a strong influence on her sons. Richard Nixon's early life as hard. The family experienced tragedy twice early

Prior to Communism in China, it was known to be a chaotic country on the brink of self-destruction. With the emergence of the party leader Mao Zedong, came a new hope, which filled its inhabitants with the belief that China would return to its former historical greatness. American and Chinese relations before 1971 were in simple terms described as “uneasy”, due to the American, Soviet Cold War. It was not until President Richard Nixon visited China and realized the high value of having China as a ally that relations between the two powers began to become positive. Unknown at the time, it is assumed in the book Chinese Lessons written by John Pomfret, that the relationships he formed with the people he met in China would change his outlook on life and Communist China forever.

Almost all parts of the world did not expect such meeting to happen and some did not want this friendly meeting to happen. In fact it came as complete shock to most of Soviet leadership (MacMillan, 290) Since the Soviets was not in good relations with China Soviets were irritated that this impossible meeting took place to improve the Sino-American relationship. The U.S. and China had been enemies for too long and also the war in Vietnam remained to keep them apart. (MacMillan, 289)The KGB, the Soviet secret police, had planned a campaign of disinformation to keep Americans and Chinese apart. (MacMillan, 289)

President Grover Cieveland gived Li Hung-Chang a very warm welcome. Immediately the Chinese ambassador made plans for a grand gesture of some sort. He thinked about several ideas. Finally, he decided on a huge dinner party at the Chinese embassy the following evening.

The Shanghai Communiqué was signed on the 27th of February in 1972 between our country and the Chinese. The communiqué was drafted by Henry Kissinger the National Security Adviser at the time and Chou En-lai the Chinese Prime Minister. Ultimately the communiqué pledged China and the United States to work towards normalizing their relations, expanding “people-to-people contacts” and trade opportunities. This is where Taiwan came into play. Neither side wanted to broach the subject of Taiwan, but this tiny island was a massive block throughout the negotiations. However, neither China nor the United States was going to let China hinder the start of their developing new relationship.

Since in 1949 Mao Zedong declared the existence of People’s Republic of China, self-interest has been playing a crucial role in China’s foreign policy because of its special geographical contiguity with both the Soviet bloc and capitalist camp and a dynamic political standpoint based on its own needs. The Cold War era as the early stage of China’s development which included complex interactions with multiple powers through dimensions in ideology, national security, economics and influences would be an ideal paradigm of this idea. (Chen, 2001) Figure I, the first picture on “The Cold War”, Wikipedia, is a perfect illustration of the Cold War period: Apparently, backed by NATO and Warsaw Pact separately, the United States

The United States once has very series military, or strategic, relations with China. This brought on the Moscow Conference in October of 1943 (which also included two other nations; United Kingdom & the Soviet Union)

On New Year’s Day 1979, The People’s Republic of China (PRC) established formal relations with the US after 30 years of friction and short-circuiting each other’s geopolitical agendas. From squaring off in Korea and Vietnam during the Cold War, China and the US now practice two-way trade valued at over half a trillion dollars. The takeaway here is that diplomacy is rarely a zero-sum game or linear in motion.