resident Donald Trump may have had his “only Nixon could go to China” moment.
There is no telling how long Trump’s diplomatic breakthrough in Gaza will last or whether it will truly inaugurate an era of peace in the Middle East.
Nor is it a foregone conclusion that Trump can continue to soar above the clouds as a unique hawk-dove hybrid before the risks of Middle Eastern quagmires send his aspirations crashing down to earth.
But at least some of the reasons Trump has so far succeeded where the former President Joe Biden failed—and make no mistake, the release of the still-living Israeli hostages held in captivity by Hamas for over two years and a ceasefire in Gaza are successes—are reminiscent of Richard Nixon’s opening to China.
Nixon’s anticommunist credentials were unassailable. Even a considerable part of his outreach to Communist China was a product of his desire to gain an upper hand in the Cold War. Nixon wanted to drive a wedge between Beijing and the Soviet Union, exacerbating a growing split within international communism.
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