Republic of China (Taiwan) flag.
President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, who was first his national-security adviser and then his secretary of state, are supposed to have been foreign-policy geniuses, most notably for their approach in 1971 and 1972 to what we then called Red China. The Nixon-Kissinger idea was to further separate the government in Beijing from its great fellow Communist ally, the Soviet Union, and induce both countries to diminish their support for North Vietnam's war against South Vietnam, where the United States was doing most of the fighting.
Recognizing Red China should have been no big deal ordinarily, for the primary criterion for recognizing governments is not their politics or decency but simply whether they rule distinct territory. But as a Republican U.S. representative and senator, Nixon had been an instigator of the great red scare of the early 1950s and had blamed the Democratic administration of Harry Truman for losing China to communism. So Nixon's reversing his posture on China was almost as sensational as the sudden alliance of Nazi Germany with the Soviet Union in August 1939. Nixon got away with it because most people agreed with the new policy, and so his old red-baiting was forgotten.
But as things turned out China and the Soviet Union did not curtail their support for the Communist side in the Vietnam War, and the U.S. side was defeated two years after Nixon visited China and just after he resigned the presidency to avoid impeachment. Opening China to trade with the United States, normalization boosted China's development and led to the decline of much of U.S. industry.
It also caused the United States to betray its longstanding ally, the Republic of China -- the losing side in the Chinese Civil War, which had moved to the island of Taiwan. The Republic of China was expelled from the United Nations and its diplomatic relations with the United States were demoted from formal to informal, though Taiwan also governed and continues to govern distinct territory.
Now the United States and its Asian allies are being threatened by North Korea as it develops nuclear weapons and the missiles to deliver them. North Korea's neighbors and sponsors, China and Russia, resist cutting off the troublesome country. China is becoming an imperial power (like the United States itself) and is creating islands in the South China Sea to gain control over international navigation there. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and at China's insistence Taiwan is being denied even observer status in international organizations and is losing diplomatic recognition from other countries.
So what does the United States have today to show for the supposed Nixon-Kissinger genius in Asian policy? Not much.
Yes, Communist Vietnam, which defeated the U.S.-backed side in Vietnam's civil war, is increasingly friendly to the United States. But this is despite the Nixon-Kissinger policies, not because of them. That is, like other countries nearby, Vietnam feels threatened by China and on the whole the Vietnamese and the Chinese long have detested other.
Meanwhile Taiwan, whose demotion throughout the world was triggered by the United States' bid to woo mainland China, has become a vigorous and prosperous democracy that might better be called Free China. The brave little country strives quietly to maintain its sovereignty in anticipation of the eventual dissolution of the totalitarian regime that threatens it.
So it seems that the United States would have done better to stay true to its principles and loyal to Free China, whose simple example may be the best hope for democracy on the mainland.
Chris Powell is managing editor of the Journal Inquirer, in Manchester, Conn.
