At home, anti-communists charged the Truman administration and the Democrats with the “loss” of China to the communists. The Korean War (1950-1953) pitted the two countries against each other again after China intervened in the conflict to support North Korea. The Americans isolated the PRC and backed Taiwan as the legitimate government of China, refusing to allow the PRC a seat in the United Nations (UN). Mao turned to the Soviets for assistance in building up China, securing economic and military aid from Stalin in 1950. Chiang fled to Taiwan and installed his Guomindang government on the island. The communists had established the PRC in October 1949, after a long civil war that resulted in a communist victory over the American-backed government of Chiang Kai-shek. That Nixon would be the first president to visit “Red China” and negotiate with Mao would have shocked partisans on both sides in the 1950s. The thaw in U.S.-Soviet relations was part of a Nixon strategy known as détente, a means to lessen tensions between the two superpowers and possibly use the Soviets to apply pressure on their North Vietnamese ally to negotiate an end to the Vietnam War. For example, Nixon’s meeting with his Soviet counterpart Leonid Brezhnev in 1971 led to an arms control agreement known as the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty (SALT), cultural exchanges, and a trade agreement. Called summits, these meetings typically produced improved relations between the two superpowers. Meetings between American and Soviet leaders had happened many times over the preceding years. President Nixon shaking hands with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai immediately upon landing in China in 1972. Nixon met with Mao in the leader’s study, toured the Great Wall of China with First Lady Pat Nixon, and attended a banquet in his honor with Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai. The visit, which Nixon dubbed “the week that changed the world,” produced great theater. Use this Narrative toward the beginning of the chapter to discuss foreign policy during Nixon’s presidency and the importance of his visit to the People’s Republic of China.įrom February 21 to 28, 1972, President Richard Nixon became the first president to visit the People’s Republic of China (PRC), traveling there specifically for talks with communist leader Mao Zedong.
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