US Elections

Is "only Nixon could go to China" a myth?

By Jonathan Bradley in Sydney, Australia

21 February 2012

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USSC Associate researcher and American Review contributor Tom Switzer had a great article in this weekend's Australian on President Richard Nixon's opening of diplomatic relations with China. The conventional wisdom is that this was a diplomatic coup that could only be achieved by a hardline anti-communist like Nixon. Not so, argues Tom:

The conventional wisdom is wrong. Why? Because the American consensus to isolate communist China had collapsed by 1966, more than five years before Nixon's visit. So swiftly had the political climate changed that even a liberal Democrat president could have negotiated with Mao Zedong and Chou En-lai in 1972 without arousing the anger of middle America. Moreover, it was in 1966 when the pliant Nixon had begun his own ideological odyssey.

Tom argues that during the late '60s, American opinions on China were undergoing a rapid change:

The answer lies in understanding the broader US reconsideration of China policy. In 1966, as serious doubts emerged about the Vietnam war, a great debate began. Opinion leaders — politicians, journalists, business, think tanks — began to criticise the two-decades-old policy of isolating Peking. Even the Sinophiles who had been dismissed as academic fringe-dwellers had suddenly gained a new legitimacy in congressional hearings.

It was widely agreed that China, far from being a reckless dragon bent on world revolution, had been more moderate and cautious; and that Washington should make every effort to integrate Peking into the world community.

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Clearly, a new era in US understanding of China had begun in 1966. Meanwhile, Nixon was uncharacteristically silent. From August 1966 until the second half of 1967, there is no evidence to suggest he had said anything publicly about China policy. Nothing. The silence was significant.

This seems pretty reasonable to me. Nixon was a canny observer of the public mood, and had a great talent for putting himself on the more popular side of the divisive issue. I wonder though whether, even if a liberal Democratic president could have gone to China as Nixon did, whether latent fears of McCarthyism might have dissuaded him? Was Nixon's exceptional quality not his ability to go to China, but his recognition that it was now within the realm of the possible?

Tags: China, Communism, Only Nixon Could Go To China, Richard Nixon, Tom Switzer

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