On July 15, 1971, President Nixon surprised the world by announcing a trip to communist China on live television and radio broadcast, a trip that he hoped would initiate a more positive political relationship between the two rivaling countries.
Beginning in the 1920’s, tensions were already flaring up within the Chinese government. Fragmented after the death of president Yuan Shikai at the end of the Qing Dynasty, the Chinese Government had two main groups attempting to seize control of it. Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong represented the People’s Republic of China, while the opposition Chinese National Party (or Kuomintang), led by Chiang Kai-shek, represented a corrupt but more moderate political faction. The result was a civil war that lasted almost five years, leading to an eventual victory for Mao Zedong and the communist People’s Republic of China. The conclusion of the war allowed Mao Zedong to take charge and formally establish the People’s Republic of China as the sole government of China.
But the war had left China disconnected from the rest of the world. For more than twenty years after the revolution, China had few contacts, limited trade, and little to no political alliances. Tensions were especially high between the U.S. and China due to the arduous U.S. anti-communist efforts to prevent the domino effect— the spread of communism to neighboring Asian countries. Back home, an American politician by the name of Joseph McCarthy had begun his own war against communism. McCarthy was known for his smear tactics, the use of negative propaganda, against those he deemed communist during the Cold War era. President Nixon, along with the help of Joseph McCarthy, cracked down on vestigial signs of communism, playing prominent roles in the post-World War II “Red Scare.”
By 1971, however, many different factors had changed the way Nixon viewed the Chinese. The Vietnam War had become a major foreign issue for the U.S. and, domestically, a nuisance to Nixon’s reelection chances. With no obvious way to exit the war and more and more casualties mounting every day, Nixon seized the opportunity to establish diplomatic relations with China. These successive events led to July 15, 1971. On that historic date, President Nixon announced his “journey for peace,” in which he normalized relations between the People’s Republic of China and the U.S.. This move significantly boosted Nixon’s electoral popularity, and led to his sweeping reelection in 1972. Subsequently, Nixon’s actions paved the way for future U.S. presidents to build upon the U.S.-China relationship that he had established. President Jimmy Carter, for example, granted China full diplomatic recognition in 1979.
