Two drowning men clinging to each other will drown faster than one.
Nixon was trying to be cleaver. But what he did was foolish. No matter what he intended he threw them a livesaver. He should have let the ChiComs drown too under the weight of socialism.
“Nixon was trying to be cleaver. But what he did was foolish. No matter what he intended he threw them a livesaver. He should have let the ChiComs drown too under the weight of socialism.”
But you have to remember, that in 1972 China and Russia — though both communist countries — were not on the best of terms. I think that is what Nixon was trying to take advantage of, and even exploit.
Nixon was shrewd.
Some of his successors misplayed things to allow China’s astonishing economic growth with no requirement that they liberalize (in the classic 19th century meaning).
Clinton was the worst granting Most Favored Nation status while accepting cash on the side. Similarly, Obama. W did not do much to rein them in, either.
Keeping China and Russia apart has been a successful foreign policy for fifty years and, as George Keenan noted, little good will come of provoking them to align.