Nixon in China

By 1969 relations between China and the Soviet Union had broken down so badly that their troops fought along the Ussuri River border. President Nixon and his adviser Henry Kissinger saw an opportunity for triangular diplomacy: by opening relations with Beijing, the US could put pressure on Moscow and look for help in leaving Vietnam. 'Ping-pong diplomacy' in April 1971, when a US table-tennis team visited China, signalled a thaw. Kissinger then made a secret trip to Beijing in July 1971.

In February 1972 Nixon became the first US president to visit the People's Republic. He met Mao Zedong, and the two sides issued the Shanghai Communiqué, in which the US acknowledged that Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is 'but one China', while the two sides set aside their dispute over Taiwan. The visit was significant because it showed that power politics could override ideology. A strongly anti-communist president had reached out to Mao, and détente with the USSR soon followed. Full diplomatic relations came in 1979.