preview

The Complexity of Nixon’s Opening of China Anthony Bushong Professor Deborah Larson TA:

Better Essays

The Complexity of Nixon’s Opening of China

Anthony Bushong
Professor Deborah Larson
TA: Galen Jackson
Political Science 189 HC
21st of March 2014

Introduction In 1972, President Richard Nixon was quoted as stating that his visit to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) “changed the world…to build a bridge across sixteen thousand miles and twenty-two years of hostilities.” By meeting with Chairman Mao Zedong in Beijing, Nixon took groundbreaking first steps to opening relations and formally recognizing the People’s Republic of China. The history of the aforementioned hostilities between the United States and the PRC dates back to the Chinese Communist Party’s takeover of mainland China following its civil war in the …show more content…

His contempt for the function and form of the bureaucracy led him to play the situation close to the chest, operating with circumspect and trusting very few with information of the events that led to his visit. Those he did trust, such as Henry Kissinger, proved to be extremely vital in putting into motion the visit. Nixon also was in the midst of inheriting a war that America had grown disillusioned with, as ending the War in Vietnam became increasingly difficult to maneuver. Lastly, the United States was engaged in a power struggle with the Soviet Union in which both parties were fighting to maintain a balance of power. Opening relations provided solutions for these all of these problems. Thus, it becomes clear in a deep examination of the context of Nixon’s pursuit of this meeting that there was much more at stake than goodwill. Nixon’s success in visiting China to open relations directly resulted from his relationship with Henry Kissinger and their discreet modus operandi, the pendulum effect from US disillusionment with Vietnam, and American desire to check Soviet power, fostering a political climate in which a visit to China was advantageous.
Nixon and the Bureaucracy Nixon had a predisposed hatred for the politics of the bureaucracy and therefore operated under a Formal Options System, which allowed for

Get Access