Sponsored by Oxford University Press
Fifty years ago, in February 1972, Richard Nixon became the first U.S. president to visit the People’s Republic of China. A few years earlier, Nixon had explained in Foreign Affairs why continued estrangement from a country as large and important as China was untenable. The Vietnam War had “for so long dominated our field of vision that it has distorted our picture of Asia,” Nixon wrote. “We simply cannot afford to leave China forever outside the family of nations, there to nurture its fantasies, cherish its hates and threaten its neighbors.” In the wake of Nixon’s visit, the great historian Barbara Tuchman took stock of his diplomatic gambit while also imagining, in what she called an “essay in alternatives,” how the course of the Cold War might have changed had such an interaction come decades earlier: “our history, our present and our future, would have been different. We might not have come to Vietnam.” — Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, Editor
Advertisement: Oxford University Press
Discover the epic history of the rise of China and the fall of Hong Kong to authoritarian rule. Told with unique insight by Michael Sheridan, drawing on documents from archives in China and the West, interviews with key figures and eyewitness reporting over three decades. The Gate to China tells how Hong Kong was the gate to China as it reformed its economy and changed the world, emerging to challenge the West with a new order that raised fundamental questions about freedom, identity, and progress. Learn more Subscribe for Unlimited Access. Choose an All Access or Digital subscription for the app, audio, our archive, and more. © 2022 Council on Foreign Relations | 58 East 68 Street, New York NY | 10065
To celebrate our centennial year, we'll be sending you the Foreign Affairs: 100 Years newsletter every week until our anniversary issue in September. You can change your newsletter preferences at any time here.
Have questions about your subscription? Learn more about all your subscriber benefits here or visit our Frequently Asked Questions.
|
