Yeah, that’s just what we need. Taking us off the gold standard, creating the EPA, creating OSHA, and then of course, the cherry on top., He created the monster we have today in China. What a swell guy.
At that point the Arabs had decided that they liked Gold much better than (deflating) dollars, and so were cashing in greenbacks for gold as fast as they could.
Nixon closed to Gold window (ended convertability) because the Saudi's would have emptied Fr. Knox in a few more months.
What do you think should have been done differently?
You forgot the ever helpful double nickel national speed limit, to “save gas” which morphed into “increase safety” when the oil “crisis” turned out to be a fraud.
Hardly. Nixon used China at the height of the cold war to "triangulate" Russia. What he wanted to avoid was a Russia-China tight alliance.
But, in terms of what he really did it was all symbolic. "Ping Pong Diplomacy", Pandas to the D.C. Zoo.
It was Clinton who gave them WTO and zero-tarrif trade with the USA, and that's what made them an economic powerhouse. |
Mao was still in charge of China when Nixon made his diplomatic overture to them. Nixon was under no illusions about what type of fellow Mao was.