Probably the most remarkable piece of foreign policy that was exhibited during the Nixon Era was President Nixon's opening up of China. NBC News Commentator John Chancelor remarked that this was "one of the most stunning developments in foreign affairs that anyone in my generation can remember."

While Nixon looked at this as a way of bringing peace for the current and future generations, not everyone including members of the military establishment and members of his own political party were happy with Nixon's courting of the Chinese.

Read Dr. Peter Klingman's Richard Nixon's Opening of China, 1963-1972

Read Fred Graboske's response to Dr. Klingman's Article

So impressive was Nixon's endeavor, that in January 1972, Time named the President as 1971's "Man of the Year" stating that: "He reached for a place in history by opening a dialogue with China . . . and doing it with a flair for secrecy and surprise that has marked his leadership as both refreshingly flexible and disconcertingly unpredictable--Richard Milhous Nixon, more than any other man or woman, dominated the world's news in 1971. He was undeniably the Man of the Year."

Read the Time editorial from January 3, 1972

William F. Buckley and other conservatives felt betrayed by Nixon and that "he had been overcome by the tactical and bureaucratic and diplomatic exigencies . . . And that he was abandoning such a role as he had enjoyed for twenty years as the leading spokesman for an adamant anti communist foreign policy. We felt that he had been overcome by the delirium of the event."

Read Buckley's interview from "Nixon's China Game" from PBS

The Nixon Era Center is pleased to provide access to additional resources regarding Nixon's historic China visit. These include video clips of President and Mrs. Nixon disembarking Air Force One and their first meeting with Chinese Premier Chou En-Lai and the meeting between Communist Party Chairman Mao Tse-tung and Nixon. In addition, read the details about the trip from the Chinese perspective with PBS' interview with Zhang Ham Zhi, the interpreter for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. Ms. Zhi is seen in the Chairman Mao video and many of Ollie Atkins' photographs.