How Did Nixon Influence American Foreign Policy

In 1968, Richard Nixon won the election of President and took over a country embroiled in a fierce containment of Communism, and an ongoing war in Vietnam. Once in office, Nixon began to establish himself differently than his predecessors. Nixon who would work closely with his top advisor, Kissinger, set out to redefine American foreign policy. There were three major foreign policies that Nixon and Kissinger established, which began to “cool” off the heated Cold War. The first of these accomplishments had to do with his dealings with China. A year before his election, Nixon is noted to saying to the effect, “a billion able bodied people should not live in isolation.” Nixon set out to change that view of China. Nixon used the relationship turmoil between China and the Soviet’s, to gain an opportunity to send out diplomatic “feelers” to China. Nixon also change a long standing Cold War precedent, by calling China by its proper name, PRC. The diplomatic feelers and proper use of names, gave …show more content…
The Soviet’s, fearing the new relationship between America and China, opened an invitation to Nixon to meet with Brezhnev in Russia. This fear from Russia played into what Nixon and Kissinger would refer to as the triangular policy; playing of improving relations between each “super power” to ease tensions with the others. Nixon played his part well in this “scheme” and became the first president to visit Moscow. While in Moscow, Nixon and Brezhnev formed and signed two important treaties of the Cold War Era; the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty and an Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty. Though significant for their time, these treaties did nothing to slow the building, collecting, and storing of arms, but paved the way to improving relations in regards to armaments in both nations. This relationship fostered would be referred to as the Detente with the Soviet