This was the height of anti-Communism. The Republicans in particular had been leading that fight, Nixon included when he was in the Senate. You could really say that Nixon's own political career was largely made on being an anti-Communist crusader. He and certainly other Republicans rode that wave to popularity.

I remind you of this to set the stage. While we can certainly look back on this time as us going overboard in our fight against Communism, particularly as it relates to blacklisting and the witch hunts at home, we can't deny that Communism was viewed by many American as our greatest enemy at the time. Even if you didn't approve of some of the methods, you knew Communism was still bad.

Now, China in particular was very different than Russia. The Soviet Union was the big bad guy in this, but China was a serious player of their own and in some ways more scary to us because of the unknown factor. Russia had been dealing with the West for years. The Czar that had been overthrown was a relative of the British Crown. So while the Communists in the Soviet Union were seen as a threat to the Western way of life, it was really about it being a threat to the Western way of government. The people, the way of life, all that was the same, more or less. We could understand it. China was different. Chinese people had a culture far removed from our own, and we were particularly distrusting of Asians at this point in our history. We had Pearl Harbor during World War II, and the horrible island warfare in the Pacific. Then Korea and Vietnam, with similarly ruthless fighting. This fighting fed into the differences between West and East. When you're fighting "white people", the war feels more "civilized" because it's what we do ourselves, what we expect. The methods are still horrific, but they're the devil we know. Every war in Asia was psychologically disruptive to us and we saw Asians fighting with a dedication and passion we weren't used to in a foe. And jungle warfare is just the worst imaginable. So, there is this added stigma to China. Not only is it Communist, but it's a big player in its own right and Eastern culture is "alien" to us.

So that is what really made China "off-limits". It wasn't our part of the world. We just didn't think about it much, and what we knew about it was disturbing and confusing.

Why did Nixon go to China then? Well, the real bad guy has always been the Soviet Union. The strategy was essentially to steal their best friend. Anyone at the time could see that China was gaining a lot of power. Remember we had just failed to stop North Korea and were in a no-win situation in Vietnam. Our inability to topple China's "vassal states" meant we failed at weakening China's position in the world, and they'd inevitably grow stronger. These two ideas are what pushed Nixon to normalize relations with China. China was going to get more power on the global stage, and if we do nothing, they'll be buddy buddy with the Soviet Union.

Timing was also important because China needed us then. Give it a decade and they'd have been powerful enough that they may not have needed us, or at least not have needed us as much. We had a lot to offer China, and we could make sure it was on our terms if we played our cards right.

Some people suggest there were ulterior motives from Nixon as well. Primarily, the thinking is that this was meant to distract from and begin the end of the Vietnam War. Some evidence of this is perhaps just how much of a publicity stunt the whole trip seemed to be. If it was simply about diplomacy, then why all the effort to show the American people everything Nixon was up to? It could have just as easily been Nixon and Mao talking behind closed doors, working out some agreement. This felt like a kind of photo op for Nixon though, and perhaps because it was. The question is whether that was the prime motivation or not. It could simply be that having made the decision to normalize relations, Nixon felt it would be a good political move too. Either way, it worked and definitely helped his approval ratings. Also, it could have been a way of tackling American's perception of the Chinese, particularly in light of the anti-Communist rhetoric that we'd been hearing for so long. To get cameras in China showing the US President having a fine, enjoyable time there and meeting with leaders in the kind of way we're used to seeing Western world leaders interact would help Americans come to see China as "an okay dude". I imagine the same might have been the case for the Chinese people in regards to their view of Americans. So the idea of selling both countries on acceptance of each other might have been a smart and necessary diplomatic step.

Of course, we have to remember Taiwan in all this. A big reason China didn't like us is because we backed Taiwan as the true China. At that point it was probably silly to keep holding out for Taiwan because the fate was clear: China had become the one true China. Therefore we used Taiwan as a bargaining chip. We'd have never likely "won" with Taiwan, but it was a thorn in China's side, and if they could get us to back off our Taiwanese recognition insistence, that would legitimize them as a country, which is what China wanted. They were looking to move forward and take their spot on the global stage, and we saw that happening inevitably anyway. So rather than them getting there on bad terms with us, we threw Taiwan under the bus so that China would like us (at least as much, if not more, than they liked the Soviets). We still deal with Taiwan, and we didn't "solve" that issue with China one way or the other, but we did both agree to ignore it. So the US stopped actively pushing for Taiwan (at least publicly) and China got to continue on with its status quo and work toward their own end goal largely unimpeded by us.

Nixon as a Republican, and a staunch anti-Communist, was probably the best person suited to this moment too. If anyone was going to normalize our relationship with China, and convince the American people to let that happen, it would have to be someone who could convince the hard right anti-Communist conservatives in the country.

Overall you can't deny the incredible play Nixon had here. It's hard to say how much was anticipated and planned and how much was just good luck. It boosted Nixon's approval ratings. It was a move only he could pull off. It did improve US relations with China and possibly prevent a Soviet-China alliance against the US on the global stage. And when economic reforms came in China just a few years later, the US was ready to start trading which was a great boost for our economy.