Richard Nixons Besuch in China 1972
President Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China was the first step in formally normalizing relations between the United States and the People's Republic of China. It also marked the first time a U.S. president had visited the PRC, who at that time considered the U.S. one of its biggest enemies. The visit has become a metaphor for an unexpected and uncharacteristic action by a politician.
Meeting
In July 1971, U.S. President Nixon's National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger secretly visited Beijing during a trip to Pakistan, and laid the groundwork for Nixon's visit to China. Almost as soon as the American president arrived in the Chinese capital he was summoned for a meeting with Chairman Mao who, unknown to the Americans, had been ill nine days earlier but was at that point feeling strong enough to meet Nixon. Secretary of State William P. Rogers was excluded from this meeting and the only other American present was National Security Council staffer (and later U.S. Ambassador to China) Winston Lord. To avoid embarrassing Rogers, Lord was cropped out of all the official photographs of the meeting.[1]
Improved relations with the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China are often cited as the most successful diplomatic achievements of Nixon’s presidency. [2] After World War II, Americans saw the relations between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorating, the Russians forced communist puppet states over much of Eastern Europe, and China was on the edge of going communist. Many Americans were upset that communists might try to cause the downfall of schools or labor unions. One of the main reasons Richard Nixon became the 1952 Vice-president candidate on the Eisenhower ticket was his strong anti-communism. As contradictory that it might look, in 1972, Nixon became the first president to visit China.[3]
From February 21 to February 28, 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon traveled to Beijing, Hangzhou and Shanghai. Nixon held many meetings with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai during the trip, which included visits to the Great Wall, Hangzhou, and Shanghai. At the conclusion of his trip, the United States and the PRC Governments issued the Shanghai Communiqué, a statement of their foreign policy views and a document that was to prove to remain the basis of Sino-American bilateral relations for many years. In the communiqué, both nations pledged to work toward the full normalization of diplomatic relations. The U.S. acknowledged the notion that all Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait maintain that there is only one China and that Taiwan is part of China. Nixon and the U.S. government reaffirmed their interests in a peaceful settlement of the Taiwan question agreed by the Chinese themselves. The statement enabled the U.S. and PRC to temporarily set aside the "crucial question obstructing the normalization of relations"[4] concerning the political status of Taiwan and to open trade and other contacts. However, the United States continued to maintain official relations with the government of the Republic of China in Taiwan until 1979 when the U.S. broke off relations with the Republic of China and established full diplomatic relations with the P.R.C.
Richard Nixon wrote many books about his international interventions. Beyond Peace is the last of his post-career volumes, addressing the need for the United States to beat the competition in a transformed world by the collapse of the Communist bloc. The book treats several leaders of the 20th century: Winston Churchill, Mao Zedong, Shigeru Yoshida, Charles de Gaulle, Nikita Khruschev among others.
Max Frankel of The New York Times received the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting for his coverage of the event. The visit inspired John Adams' 1987 opera Nixon in China.
References
- ↑ Kissinger Years of Upheaval p. 65
- ↑ Joan Hoff. Nixon reconsidered (New York, NY: BasicBooks, 1994) : 182.
- ↑ Stephen E. Ambrose. Nixon, the triumph of a politician 1962-1972 (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1989): 439.
- ↑ Nixon's China's Visit and "Sino-U.S. Joint Communiqué"
Further reading
- Burr, William (1999) The Kissinger Transcripts, New Press
- MacMillan, Margaret (2007) Nixon & Mao: The Week that Changed the World, Random House
- Mann, James (1999)About Face, Knopf
- Nixon, Richard (1978) RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap
- Tyler, Patrick (1999) A Great Wall, Public Affairs
- Robert Dallek: Nixon and Kissinger : partners in power. HarperCollins, New York 2007, ISBN 0-06-072230-4.
- Elizabeth Drew: Richard M. Nixon. Times Books, New York 2007, ISBN 0-8050-6963-1.
- KAdaré, Ismail (1989) The Concert
See also
External links
- Webcast: Nixon in China Council on Foreign Relations
- Interactive, Educational Site on Nixon's Legendary 1972 Visit to China