Taiwan, or the Soviet Union? That is what the newly elected President of the United States, Richard Nixon (Republican), had been contemplating as he came into office in January, 1969. Nixon was looking for leverage in dealing with the Soviets and as it turned out, more recently, Communist China began to see the Soviets as a major threat to themselves as well. Nixon knew this, so he thought just perhaps China might be the lever he was looking for.
The roadblock for the U.S. getting together with China was the island of Taiwan. During the Chinese Civil War in the 1930s and 1940s, the U.S., for the most part, took the side of the Nationalists party in their fight against the Communists Party led by Mao Zedong. At the end of the civil war in 1949, the communists won and the Nationalists fled to Taiwan and setup shop there with the intent of continuing the fight later on. The communists were not going to live with this and the following year made plans to invade Taiwan and overthrow the Nationalists, but the U.S. military got involved and put the kibosh on it.
The U.S. officially recognized the Nationalists (and thus Taiwan) as the representative of all of China instead of the ruling Communist Party on the mainland. Further complicating the matter, the U.S. had a troop presence on the island. Nixon knew that he would get a lot of criticism within his own party if he gave up of Taiwan to the wishes of Communist China. So should he (Nixon) give up Taiwan for leverage with the Soviets? This was the dilemma Nixon faced, and he had decided that leverage was more important. After a a couple of years of secret behind the scenes discussion with the Chinese, the U.S. makes a shocking announcement on July, 1971 that Nixon would go to China to meet with Mao Zedong the following February.
Read more on this here including the story of how Kissinger lost his shirt right before he began first negotiating with the Chinese.
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