Opinion of Nixon's foreign policy

[darklordoftech]

?

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Lean FP, but Vietnam was his major weakspot.

[Voice of low info America]

Obviously mixed, but they were complicated times. Going to China was a great achievement for peace and outweighs the bad on balance, though.

[インターネット掲示板ユーザー Punxsutawney Phil]

FP

[SWE]

A shameful moment for humanity that nobody ever had this man executed

[Mr. Smith]

Being better than LBJ or Raygun is still too low of a bar. HP.

Bush Sr was a better "realist".

[President Johnson]

While Nixon gets thumbs up for detene, he unneccsarily prolonged the Vietnam war. That included useless bombardments of Cambodia and Laos, which was actually restricted by congress and caused thousands of innocent deaths. His administration's involvement in Chile to overthrow Salvador Allende and replace him with Pinochet was also a disgrace.

On balance, I'd have to vote HP because the bad clearly outweighs the good.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Evil.

[dw93]

Positives:

Opening diplomatic relations with China

Detente with the Soviet Union


Negatives:

Vietnam/Cambodia/Laos/sabotaging the peace talks before the 68 election

Chile

[Ferguson97]

Opening diplomatic relations with China was obviously a mistake in the long run, but Nixon couldn't have known that at the time.

[Voice of low info America]

Opening diplomatic relations with China was obviously a mistake in the long run, but Nixon couldn't have known that at the time.

You would prefer letting the Cold War go on in perpetuity? Or perhaps you prefer a hot war? Whatever foreign policy mistakes the US made on China, they were made long after Nixon left office.

[TheReckoning]

Opening diplomatic relations with China was obviously a mistake in the long run, but Nixon couldn't have known that at the time.

You would prefer letting the Cold War go on in perpetuity? Or perhaps you prefer a hot war? Whatever foreign policy mistakes the US made on China, they were made long after Nixon left office.

Bill Clinton pushing for China to be in the WTO was probably the bigger mistake.

[lfromnj]

Opening diplomatic relations with China was obviously a mistake in the long run, but Nixon couldn't have known that at the time.

You would prefer letting the Cold War go on in perpetuity? Or perhaps you prefer a hot war? Whatever foreign policy mistakes the US made on China, they were made long after Nixon left office.

The goal should have been to egg the Soviets and Chinese into a direct hot war.

[All Along The Watchtower]

Opening diplomatic relations with China was obviously a mistake in the long run, but Nixon couldn't have known that at the time.

You would prefer letting the Cold War go on in perpetuity? Or perhaps you prefer a hot war? Whatever foreign policy mistakes the US made on China, they were made long after Nixon left office.

The goal should have been to egg the Soviets and Chinese into a direct hot war.

Easy there, General Ripper.

[Sir Mohamed]

Pros: Detente, opening relations with China

Cons: Sabotaging 'Nam peace talks, illegal bombing of Laos and Cambodia, unnecessary other bombings, Chile coup d'etat

HP.

[Ferguson97]

Opening diplomatic relations with China was obviously a mistake in the long run, but Nixon couldn't have known that at the time.

You would prefer letting the Cold War go on in perpetuity? Or perhaps you prefer a hot war? Whatever foreign policy mistakes the US made on China, they were made long after Nixon left office.

The entire point of normalizing trade relations with China was because we thought that they would eventually liberalize/become a democracy after their economy became sufficiently developed. That obviously did not happen.

[Blue3]

China good, Southeast Asia extremely terrible.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Obviously mixed, but they were complicated times. Going to China was a great achievement for peace and outweighs the bad on balance, though.

All in all, this.  I didn't think so at the time, but over the decades, Nixon's Balance of Power Diplomacy was very effective and was a needed step toward winning the Cold War.

[TDAS04]

I’m curious if anyone who voted HP in an “opinion of Henry Kissinger” poll voted FP for this question. This poll is close enough to suggest there are at least a few, but it doesn’t make sense. I’m curious about the reasoning for why someone would consider Kissinger a horrible person, while simultaneously holding a generally favorable view of the Nixon administration’s foreign policy.

[Beet]

Nixon was a genius when it came to Cold War politics, decisively rolling back the Soviet Union in China and Egypt. Destroying the spirit of the Bandung Conference, Third Worldism, and setting the stage for the neoliberal revolutions of the 1970s and 1980s. This was probably the most reactionary wave that spread through the whole world since at least the Counter-Reformation. However, his excessive Hinduphobia makes his foreign policy a HP.

[Sir Mohamed]

Nixon was a genius when it came to Cold War politics, decisively rolling back the Soviet Union in China and Egypt. Destroying the spirit of the Bandung Conference, Third Worldism, and setting the stage for the neoliberal revolutions of the 1970s and 1980s. This was probably the most reactionary wave that spread through the whole world since at least the Counter-Reformation. However, his excessive Hinduphobia makes his foreign policy a HP.

Nixon wasn't even 100% a genius when it comes to cold war policy. He was an early advocate to escalate the conflict in 'Nam and wanted to intervene as VP already when the French were driven out. Even later, his entire military policy in Vietnam was a failure.

[CheapDollarEra?]

Not that bad. Pragmatic and cold.
Chile has one of the most western like left in the region nowadays and its right is as pro-american as plausible. That's a longterm win.

[Long Live The King!]

Nixon should have made opening up relations with China conditional on relinquishing its claim to Taiwan and while getting out of Vietnam was necessary he shouldn't have fully ended support to South Vietnam. Otherwise, his fp is probably roughly what was necessary at the time.

[MyLifeIsYours 🇵🇸 🇨🇩 🇸🇩]

The continuation of the Vietnam conflict, with escalations crossing into Cambodia that led to Pol-Pot , as with interventions in Bangladesh and Chile, make his overall foreign policy in the drain. The detente with the Societ Union and opening relations with China don't override the millions of casualties from the resulting events.

[kaoras]

Not that bad. Pragmatic and cold.
Chile has one of the most western like left in the region nowadays and its right is as pro-american as plausible. That's a longterm win.

So Pinochet was worth it so decades later Chile could vote against the Iraq War when it was in the UN security council, replace the US with China as its largest trade partner, join South Africa lawsuit against Israel and refuse to sell weapons to Ukraine?

That's a very weird definition of long term win.

Event at public opinion level most people prefer to trade with China than with the US