Some of my loyal readers took me to task last week for suggesting that the Opening to China engineered by Henry Kissinger on behalf of President Richard Nixon might not have been the great diplomatic achievement it has long been presented (especially by Kissinger) to be. Some of the comments were quite good, and I feel I should respond with more than just a quick reply.
I tried to make two main points. The first was that the opening didn't have much if any payoff for the United States in terms of reducing its national security burden. The second was that, whereas before the opening China was poor, weak, and unable to challenge the U.S. in any way, since the opening China has become a great power that is widely displacing U.S. power and influence.
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