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Is the West Turning Away from Nixon's Vision of China?

Jamie Dettmer

   In 1972 US President Richard Nixon visited the People's Republic of
   China, ending years of estrangement between the two countries and
   lifting the bamboo curtain China had been hidden behind since Mao
   Zedong launched his Cultural Revolution in 1966.

   "The week that changed the world," was how Nixon dubbed his bold trip,
   which was pulled off after months of secret negotiations conducted by
   his then-National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger. Reminiscing later
   about the visit, Nixon said: "We were embarking on a voyage of
   philosophical discovery as uncertain, and in some ways as perilous as
   the voyages of geographical discovery of an earlier time."

   The U.S. leader had shocked the world a few months before the trip by
   announcing his intention of undertaking one, a plan that surprised many
   in the White House, too, including Alexander Haig, one of Nixon's
   advisers.

   Haig was taken aback when Kissinger left the Oval Office one day and
   told him, "Al, this fellow wants to open relations with China." Haig
   responded: "Not a cold war warrior like Nixon." To which Kissinger
   retorted, "I think he has lost control of his senses."

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