Richard Nixon’s 1972 China Visit: A Historic Blunder?

NEW DELHI: Is the contemporary race for one-upmanship between the United States and China rooted in the past? Forty nine years ago this week then U.S. President Richard Nixon and his NSA Henry Kissinger embarked on a historic visit to China, which ultimately led to resumption of formal bilateral ties and opened China’s door to the world. In this episode of ‘Simply Nitin’, StratNews Global Editor-in-Chief Nitin A. Gokhale looks back at the circumstances that led to that visit, the planning it entailed, what the United States hoped to achieve and whether, in retrospect, the U.S. erred in facilitating China’s entry to the global commons.