Comparison of Nixon and Mao Zedong (Essay Sample)

Comparing Nixon and Mao Zedong
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Comparing Nixon and Mao Zedong
In the week beginning on 21st February 1972, Richard Nixon, the then President of the United States, made history by being the first U.S sitting president to step into the People’s Republic of China. His journey was aimed at initiating talks with Mao Zedong, the communist leader of China. That single week changed the world. Meetings between Soviet and American leaders had occurred countless times before then. Dubbed “summits”, these meetings yielded better relations between the U.S and the Soviet Union. For instance, the meeting between Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev in 1971 caused the two superpowers to sign an arms control treaty and also several other trade agreements (Raleign, 2018). Other meetings between the United States and Soviet leaders were founded on the purposes of lessening tensions and influencing the war in Vietnam. Nonetheless, Nixon was able to make history by visiting China and holding negotiations with Mao Zedong, a move that shocked the world in just how it was crafted in intelligence and determination to enhance relations between America and China.
After the Second World War, China and the Soviet Union enjoyed a cordial relationship. The utmost priority of the People’s Republic of China was to maintain diplomacy. The two governments kept on communicating and holding bilateral talks which were led by their top leaders. While the Sino-Soviet relationship was healthy in the first half of the 50s, the second half was characterized by serious disagreements (Resnick, 2019). The Chinese Communist Party disagreed with Soviets on how to best evaluate Stalin. There was also a disagreement on the way the International Communist movement was being directed by Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader. The dispute between the two countries spread from being based on ideology to the relations that the states forming the bloc stood for.
It was at this time that Mao Zedong started to relook at the paradigm shift in the balance of power between these two differing blocs. The understanding of threat with regards to the U.S was often decided based on domestic and foreign challenges. Beijing showed determination to maintain communication with Washington. Talks between the U.S and China had occurred in the 60s with the most popular one being held in Warsaw (Gheorghe, 2018). The talks in Warsaw were crucial in enabling further talks to continue between the two nations and Mao Zedong made it possible. At that time, America still saw the Soviet Union as being a threat. Third world countries were now the battleground for the enormous power disputation between U.S and the Soviet Union. Nationalism was rising due to communist infiltration in those third world countries and this posed a threat to the United States and the rest of the West. It was this moment was China emerged as a top revolutionary state in the world hence threatening not only the western world, but also the claim of Moscow that it was the leader of the Soviet bloc.
On the other hand, President Nixon was optimistic that if he established diplomatic relationships with the communists in China, the United States would benefit in a myriad of ways. For example, improved relations would benefit the economy of the United States as it would result in significant trade agreements, more so in California and the Pacific Coast. These relations would also improve the political situation of the world at that time. The normalization of the United States relations with China would split the already straying alliance between China and the Soviet Union (Maher, 2018). Besides, better relations between the United States and China would possibly pile pressure on North Vietnam to agree to the proposition of a negotiated peace in order to bring to an end the conflict that had ravaged South Vietnam. Nixon was an intelligent president because he took China’s invitation of an American table-tennis team as an indication that China was willing to talk with the United States.
Furthermore, Nixon fully believed in the political capital which he wanted to witness in America. Doing business with communists had always proven to be a risky and tricky affair throughout the entire cold war. The public opinion of the American populace was feeble in recognizing the threat that the Soviet Union had posed to the world after World War II. Nonetheless, after being convinced of the materiality of the threat, America became pre-occupied with the notion that communists were extremely powerful and ubiquitous. Americans started to believe that communist ideas were all over Asia, central Europe and within the structure of the American governance system. Nixon had himself distinguished his political career on the basis of anti-communism. Throughout his campaigns since 1946, Nixon had always accused of his opponents of being soft with communists. This time he had mastered the politics of the world and was able to rally Americans around his anti-communist agenda.
Besides, Nixon also had the merit of being intellectually curious and determined in all that he pursued. He was an intelligent man who was also full of determination and the knowledge to perceive trends in history and maximize them. He was a man who was in love with foreign policy. He also liked to engage with importunate legislators in America and intricacies of schools. He knew why he was in politics. He assured Americans that he foremost agenda was to enhance the security of the nation by running major foreign policy matters out of the presidency. With the excellence and experience he had gained throughout the years by touring the world as a private citizen, Nixon was conversant with diplomacy. He would meet local leaders and American diplomats all over the world even when he was not yet in office. For this reason, Nixon was able to gather courage and meet Mao Zedong.
Additionally, President Nixon had taken advantage of the deteriorating relations between China and the Soviet Union to reach his determined goal. The perception of the serious threat that China faced from the Soviet Union at that time forced Mao Zedong to lift the sanctions and conceptual restrictions so that China’s relationship with the United States would improve. Henry Kissinger, a diplomat hired by the Nixon administration had travelled to Beijing twice in 1971. These travels showed the determination of the United States to soldier on towards negotiating with Mao Zedong (Crean, 2019). At the core of the summit diplomacy chaired by the two presidents was the issues over the threat posed by the