New exhibit spotlights Nixon’s historic China trip

While President Richard Nixon’s trip to China in February 1972 is now considered one of the most significant events in late 20th century international diplomacy, a Gallup Poll taken the day the trip ended shows that most Americans did not appreciate its significance at the time. A quarter of those polled believed it would be “not at all effective” in improving world peace. Half thought it might be “fairly effective,” and only 16 percent expected it to be “very effective.”

The poll results are featured in the new "Nixon in China" exhibit in the Library's first-floor exhibit space, which opened April 4 and runs through June 1. Presented in cooperation with the Chicago Opera Theater [COT], the exhibit is one of a series of events around the Chicago metropolitan area helping to establish the historical context for the Chicago premiere of John Adams’s opera Nixon in China in May. Beth Clausen, the exhibit’s curator and head of the Government and Geographic Information Department, says she wanted the exhibit to highlight how much times and attitudes have changed. “We take it for granted today that you can just get on a plane and visit China,” she says. “But before this historic trip, that was unheard-of, since U.S. relations had been closed with China since about 1950.”

The COT helped Beth obtain many of the exhibit’s striking photographs from the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California. They show, among other scenes, Nixon’s historic handshake with Premier Zhou Enlai upon his arrival, the president with First Lady Pat Nixon at the Great Wall, and Mrs. Nixon grinning at a panda at the Beijing Zoo.

Beth combined such photographs with materials from the University Library that would “highlight the resources we have for the study of this trip and its historic implications.” Contemporary magazines and newspaper items from the Library’s Periodicals Collection illustrate the media’s coverage of the trip, including a U.S. News & World Report cover wondering what a new relationship with “Red China” could mean for the United States. A declassified memo from Henry Kissinger to the president (from Government Documents), dated the day they returned, suggests “Talking Points” for the president’s pending discussions with Congressional leaders. (Kissinger urges Nixon to stress that “There were no secret deals or agreements” made, and to avoid “any indication that the Soviet Union was discussed in anything but the most general terms.”

Tao Xie, a Northwestern Ph.D. candidate in political science who was born in China, praised the Library’s exhibit. If not for that historic visit, he said, he would not be in the United States studying today. “This trip opened the door for all of us,” he said, gesturing to the display cases. “It’s important to remember the good part of Nixon’s legacy. All the rest is so overshadowed by Watergate.”