Foreign Policy in the Nixon Presidency Essay

Richard Nixon is wiz of the most contr everyplacesial figures in American history. His governance is remembered most for the Watergate scandal and his ulterior resignation precisely some of his unconnected policies forever altered American conflicting diplomacy. One of the major policies that hot seat Nixon was responsible for was changing the nature of the united States dealinghip with china. He did this by setting into gesticulate covert diplomatical actions and cultural exchanges between the both countries. Nixons reasons for improving relationships with the Communist regime was to force the Soviet Union to be more accommodating to American demands and to overly help oneself culmination the fight in Vietnam. An some early(a) reason for improving relations was truly personal for Richard Nixon. He wanted to specify his power as an supranational statesman to the know takege base and American public. American/Chinese relations for numerous years were fri complet ionly and involved the trade of goods and humors. American missionaries had gone to mainland mainland mainland chinaware to get to churches and hospitals. The both countries were aloneies a profitst the Japanese during World cont finale II. afterwardsward the war finish the join States was not an ally of China as a whole but one political group, the Kuomintang.The Kuomintang, led by Chang Kai Shek, were in battled in a civil war with the Chinese communistics who would finally win out. Chang Kai Shek would take his government activity to the island of mainland China. afterward the civil war, the united States precisely recognized Changs commonwealth of China and kept the mints democracy of China, led by monoamine oxidase Ze-Dong, out of the unite Nations and other international bodies. This led to an isolation of China by a bulk of the international community. The only diplomatic relations the United States had with China were through and through intermediary cou ntries. trance relations with the United States were sour, the Chinese relationship with the Soviet Union had quickly deteriorated. Both China and the Soviet Union were communist countries but their ideologies were very different. Their relationship slowly became strained and both countries started to build up troops along their common gross profit margin through the 1960s.after the Soviet Union invaded Czechoslovakia and released the Brezhnev teaching, which stated that the Kremlin had the right to correct deviationism in other communist countries by military intervention, the Chinese no longer considered the Soviet Union as an ally. This led to violent border clashes between the two countries in March 1969. By the end of 1969 the Soviet Union had over a million troops stationed along the Soviet/Chinese border and missiles aimed at major Chinese cities. The year before, a former republican vice-president from California, Richard Nixon, was pick out president. He had make a nam e for him self in Congress as a leading anti-communist and he went on to dish as vice-president under Dwight D Eisenhower. Even before he was elected president, Nixon had ex promoteed interest in opening up relations with China despite his previous blackball views of fabianism.In 1967 he wrote an term for irrelevant Affairs magazine where he stated We simply cannot afford to abdicate China forever outside the family of nations, there to nurture its fantasies, cherish its hates and scupper its neighbors. There is no place on this small planet for a billion of its potentially most able people to live in angry isolation. After his election as President Richard Nixon decided to get out China one of the primary foc expenditures of his unknow policy. One of his primary reasons for doing this was to gain an upper hand in the now 20-year-old Cold War with the Soviet Union. The Soviets had taken over several Eastern European countries and turned them into communist states in an atte mpt to show the world the successes of Communism. besides by the tardy 1960s the United States was no longer confident that it could win a war with the Soviet Union since they had had the two decades since the Second World War to regain it military strength. This required the United States to feed to change strategies in dealing with the Soviet Union. They now had to shift their focus to gaining China as an ally.The State Department in the summer of 1969 began to announce various one-party gestures of reconciliation. Many restrictions on travel and trade were lifted. This would be watch know as Ping Pong diplomacy. It was so named after the United States ping-pong group was invited to the Chinese capital in April of 1971. During their construe the group was treated as though they were dignitaries or royalty. They played matches against the Chinese team but too discovered important landmarks through out China. The American delegation was accompanied by members of the press an d was closely watched by the American public. At a facing pages for the visiting Americans, Chou En-Lai, the Chinese postmortem told the group, Exchanges between our two countries have been cut off for a long time but now, with your toleration of our invitation, you have opened a new page in the relations of the Chinese and American people. While the American ping-pong players were the talk of the media, posterior the scenes Nixon was retchting into action his plan to improve relations with China.He did this by employing his National Security Advisor, Henry Kissinger, to make covert communications with the Chinese government. Before the Ping-Pong players had ever set foot in China and at the beginning of his presidency Nixon had Kissinger prepare a study on the feasibility of improving American/Chinese relations. Originally Kissinger was hesitant roughly the idea of talks with China even being quoted as look this crazy guy really does want to normalize relations with China. s olely even Kissinger knew that an alliance between the United States and China could shift the orbicular political powers more in favor of the United States and away from communism and the Soviet Union. One of the biggest roadblocks to improving relations with China was the screw of Taiwan. Since the Chinese civil war ended the United States had only recognized the government of the Republic of China on the island of Taiwan.So even as Nixon is seek to improve relations with communist China there is still the issue that the United States does not officially recognize the Peoples Republic of China as a legitimate government. To ease some of Chinas concerns, Nixon instructs his administration to terminate navel patrols in the Straight of Taiwan. Also in a radio address that Nixon gave on February 25, 1971 regarding his congressional foreign policy report he reiterated both his intention to protect Taiwan but open up talks with China. We entrust search for square discussions with C ommunist China time maintaining our defense commitment to Taiwan. When the Government of the Peoples Republic of China is ready to engage in talks, it will find us receptive to agreements that further the legitimate national interests of China and its neighbors.A visit to China was next on Nixons foreign policy agenda. He announced his intentions in 1970, taking much of the world by surprise especially the Soviet Union. He negotiated this visit prototypical by secretly sending Henry Kissinger to Beijing in July of 1971. Kissinger made this covert trip by faking illness on a diplomatic visit to Pakistan and flying to China to convey Nixons intention to Premier Zhou En-Lai. It was decided that President Nixon would visit the following year. On February 21, 1972, Richard Nixon became the starting United States President to visit China.The following week would become known as the week that changed the world. President Nixon would only meet with an ailing Mao Ze-dong one time during his visit but it would set in motion events that would lead to United States recognition of Maos government and an end to the Cold War. The visit ended with both countries issuing the Shanghai Communiqu. In this document both countries pledged to work towards normalization of relations. The United States also agreed to remove military forces from Taiwan. Shortly after the delegations return from their visit to China, Richard Nixon tasked Henry Kissinger with negotiating arms treaties with the Soviet Union. With the well-publicized visit closely watched by the Soviets the United States now had more bargaining power. In 1972, Kissinger negotiated the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks. The two Cold-War super powers agreed that they would begin limiting missiles, thermonuclear arms, and delivery systems. With his relation back success in negotiating deals with both China and the Soviet Union, Richard Nixon was hopeful that he would have the same success in negotiating a deal with nort heastward Vietnam to end the Vietnam War.Going into his re-election campaign in 1972 the United States had been at war in Vietnam for 12 years, over 50,000 had been killed, and billions of dollars had been spent. His first major policy regarding Vietnam that Nixon put into place was the Nixon Doctrine. The Doctrine had three major tenants. First, the United States would honor all of its treaty agreements. Secondly, the United States would provide a shield if a nuclear power threatened an ally or a country the United States deemed to be vital to its national security. And, lastly, the United States would provide military and sparing aid to countries under treaty agreements, but the requesting nation would be pass judgment to bear primary responsibility to provide the manpower for its own defense. The Nixon Doctrine led to the withdrawal of ground troops from Vietnam and training the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (South Vietnam) in defense of their own country.Nixon had also hoped that his new treaties with China would help to isolate the North Vietnamese and convince them to sign a heartsease treaty. In 1973, a cease-fire was negotiated at the Paris Peace Accords and ended United States involvement in Vietnam. However this did not stop the get around of communism to south Vietnam. Nixons improved relations with China were largely unsuccessful in there being a positive solvent of the Vietnam War. While the integral episode of the Vietnam War was seen as a shortcoming on Richard Nixons organization he was still very implicated close to his image not only among the American public but on the world stage as well. He wanted to handling his visit to China to draw attention to his expertise as a international statesman. Among the people that accompanied Nixon on his trip to China was whitened House Chief of Staff Bob Haldeman.While Nixon was meeting more often than not with Chinese Premier Zhou and negotiating agreements, Haldeman and Nixons wife Pat t oured factories and schools throughout China. Mrs. Nixon was followed by a large group of press. Bob Haldeman was in pick of making their visit look very positive to the American public. Margaret MacMillan writes in her book Nixon in China, The images flowed back to the United States, targeted for prime-time evening television. It was a presidential election year at home and Haldeman wanted to make original that Nixon shone out as the great leader and statesman. From the very beginning of his Presidency Richard Nixon always wanted to be seen in a positive take down especially his impersonateal in the media. He tasked members of his staff with combating any cast out comments said about him and manage any news about him. He bordered on obsessive when it came to public image.His first week in office he formed a task called the Five Oclock group that was responsible for monitoring television programs for any negative comments about the President or his administration and defending them. With the Vietnam War and the protests to the end the war at the top of most news stories, Nixon needed to do something to get his name back in the limelight. Many believe that this a major factor for his motivation to reach out to China and his subsequent visit. During his time in China he made sure the entire trip was highly publicized. He did numerous photo opportunities at much(prenominal) places like the Great Wall and the Forbidden City. The reception his visit standard by the American public was very positive. This was their first view into the discriminate nation in over 20 years. This view, however, was a carefully indite play put on by the Chinese government. This was their attempt to show a New China, not one that was still suffering from the isolationist policies of the Cultural Revolution.The Chinese officials responsible for showing China in a positive way had people picnicking outside of factories in the bitter chilly listening to revolutionary music and the n collected the radios they were listening to after the delegation left. These inconsistencies were noticed by a Canadian member of the press to which Premier Zhou had to quietly admit that this was wrong of them to do. But the idea of a New China would only help President Nixon portray to the world that America and China, even with such opposite political views, could come to an understanding. His visit took the entire worlds view off of Vietnam and on to him personally while he visited China. Kissinger had pled with President Nixon to not make his trip to China a media circus because of the impact it would have internationally with Americas associate and enemies.International reaction to the visit was mixed. The United States allies were mostly let down that they had been kept in the dark about the new relations. The British entangle particularly offended that they were not informed before hand about the dealings going on between the Americans and the Chinese. Even with the som ewhat cool reception in the international community about Richard Nixons visit to China it was still one of the most significant moments in United States foreign policy during the Cold War.Henry Kissinger wrote in his memoir On China, The reward for Sino-American rapprochement would not be a state of unvarying friendship or a harmony of values, but a rebalancing of the global equilibrium. Richard Nixon helped to accomplish this by improving relations with China in an apparent movement to change the American relationship with the Soviet Union and end the Vietnam War. While his intentions were for both personal and professional gain, either way his foreign policies inhabit at the top of his successes as President. Nixons presidency is mostly remembered of one wrought with corruption and following the Watergate scandal, he is still the only United States President to resign from office. He became known as politician that would use any means necessary to accomplish his goals but th is also led to his downfall.BIBLIOGRAPHYBundy, William. A Tangled Web The making of Foreign indemnity in the NixonPresidency. New York, 1989.Chang, Gordon H.. Friends and enemies the United States, China, and the Soviet Union, 1948-1972. Stanford, Calif. Stanford University Press, 1990.Devoss, David A. Ping-Pong Diplomacy. Smithsonian . 33. no. 1 2002Keilers, hind end G. U.S. Army Military History Institute, Nixon Doctrine and Vietnamization. Last modified 2007. Accessed November 14, 2012. http//www.army.mil/article/3867/Nixon_Doctrine_and_Vietnamization/.Kissinger, Henry On China. New York Penguin Press, 2011. Print.MacMillan, Margaret. Nixon in China the week that changed the world. Toronto Viking Canada, 2006.Nixon, Richard. miller Center, Radio Address About Second Annual Foreign Policy Report to the Congress . Last modified 1971. 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