Arranged in secret, helped along by Ping-Pong and ending decades of enmity, Richard Nixon's 1972 trip to China was one of the most dramatic diplomatic events of modern times.
The week-long visit, which began 30 years ago yesterday, helped reshape the world. "On a scale of one to 10 it was a 10," said James Mann, author of a major history chronicling Sino-U.S. relations. "As well as changing relations between the U.S. and China, on a global level it changed the nature of the Cold War."
At the time, China was seen by Washington as "a brooding, chaotic, fanatical and alien realm difficult to comprehend and impossible to sway," as Henry Kissinger, Mr. Nixon's initial emissary to China, wrote in his memoirs.
Although the Communists had ruled China since 1949, Washington had refused to recognize them and maintained an official illusion that the Nationalists, who fled to Taiwan after losing China's civil war, legitimately controlled the mainland and would one day retake it. Washington was also still deeply embroiled in the Vietnam War, on China's southern border.
For Mr. Nixon to engage with the Communist state was undoubtedly a bold move, although whether only he could have taken the step is still debated. What is not in doubt is the often bizarre lead-up to his visit.
At the time, the only official Sino-U.S. contact was through their representatives in Warsaw. The first U.S. move toward rapprochement was made in late 1969, during a brief encounter at a fashion show in the Polish capital.
In April of 1971, Beijing invited the U.S. table tennis team to visit China, for the famous "Ping-Pong diplomacy" that paved the way for Mr. Nixon's visit less than a year later.
Although his visit with then-ailing Chinese leader Mao Tsetung saw tough negotiations on a series of subjects such as the U.S. attitude toward Taiwan, it was most important for shattering a two-decade freeze in relations.
The next year, the countries opened liaison offices in each other's capitals, with President George W. Bush's father, George Bush senior, becoming the second head of the U.S. mission in Beijing.
In 1975, then-president Gerald Ford visited China, and four years later the nations established full diplomatic links. Agence France-Presse