Could Only Nixon Go to China?

[Statesman]

There's a common expression that "Only Nixon could go to China". I think the general idea behind it is two fold, that it was a combination of diplomatic ingenuity and Nixon's anti-communist credentials from his Congressional career, only he could do something so bold and pull it off both diplomatically and domestically.

But is this true?

Could anyone else have "Opened" China to the world like Nixon did?

 

[Johnrankins]

Pretty much any diplomatic savvy anti-communist would do.

 

[Japhy]

The point is that it was literally impossible for anyone since the Sino Soviet split had become public to do it because it would be seen as being soft on Communism while at the same time the Democrats were paranoid to the point of paralysis on the issue because they'd been blamed for "losing" China in 1949.

The phrase has everything to do with broader context and is no popular study of Nixon being some kind of genius.

 

[Simon]

The phrase has everything to do with broader context and is no popular study of Nixon being some kind of genius.

Although being fair he was generally considered pretty astute when it came to foreign policy.

 

[BBadolato]

Anyone could have, by the time Nixon went to China, China had only distant Albania as a reliable ally. As for the Sino-Soviet not being public, it didn't matter, even when the U.S knew of the split they considered China a bigger threat since the Cuban Missile Crisis in the early 60's, because the Maoists actively supported conflict, unlike Khrushchev for all of his bluster actually supported peace coexistence. Hell by the Vietnam War the U.S knew of the split but believed that if they left it would validate Mao and cause the Soviets support more conflict to save face. As for the Split not being public, you had lots of print literature by many people who studied Communism that speculated the hell out of the Sino-Soviet split.

Only when Le Duan despite being backed by Mao made more overtures to Brezhnev for aid, who wasn't as much of pain in the ass to work with unlike Mao, did Mao consider working with the U.S. Unless you can get a non-Maoist Communist that's not aggressive, then of course anyone can go to China as it were, so Nixon wasn't that special in my opinion in that case.

 

[Indicus]

It requires someone who is well liked by conservatives and hawks and at the same time be willing to do it. Hubert Humphrey and Nelson Rockefeller wouldn't be able to do it because conservatives would bash him over the head over it and Ronald Reagan or Spiro Agnew wouldn't do it because they would not have the will to do it. You need people like Richard Nixon and George HW Bush who are well-liked by conservatives and are pragmatic enough to do it.

 

[BBadolato]

It requires someone who is well liked by conservatives and hawks and at the same time be willing to do it. Hubert Humphrey and Nelson Rockefeller wouldn't be able to do it because conservatives would bash him over the head over it and Ronald Reagan or Spiro Agnew wouldn't do it because they would not have the will to do it. You need people like Richard Nixon and George HW Bush who are well-liked by conservatives and are pragmatic enough to do it.

You sure on that? The Republicans and Democrats played the game of both trying to play who is tougher on Communism until the narratives changed on who could end the war faster with both Korea and Vietnam. The Korean War basically had all the same problems of being a seemingly unwinnable war that Vietnam did.

Nixon only was able to do what he did because Mao realized his ideologue ways screwed him just a bit too late, especially when a border war broke out between China and the Soviets in 69 that scared a hell of a lot of people on all sides. I'd say Eisenhower could have done so if Mao was willing to look the U.S immediately after breaking with the Soviets in 56 or after the formal split in 1960 Kennady could do so.