Chapter 46: The Achievements and Failures of Seventeen U.S. Presidents in the Struggle Against Communism (3)

IX. Nixon Saved Mao Zedong

In 1969, Mao Zedong, for the sake of the Cultural Revolution, launched an attack on the Soviet Union in Heilongjiang. The Soviet Union decided to launch a devastating nuclear strike against the CCP. Through diplomatic envoys, Nixon probed the US attitude, seeking cooperation or at least neutrality. Faced with this Soviet inquiry, Nixon (1913-1994) had three options: best, second best, and worst.

Of the three great villains of the 20th century, Hitler died in 1945, Stalin died in 1953, and the Soviet Union was undergoing peaceful evolution. Mao Zedong remained the most malevolent. Nixon should have possessed a grand strategic vision of anti-communism. The best option was to seize the opportunity to support the Soviet Union in defeating the villain, with the US providing only moral support without any real effort, allowing Mao to be defeated much sooner.

The second best option was to remain neutral, observing the internal conflicts within the communist bloc, allowing the villains to weaken each other, and maintaining neutrality.

The worst possible strategy was to save Mao Zedong. Unfortunately, Nixon chose this option, much like Roosevelt saved Stalin. Saving Mao left a deep-seated problem for China, one that would continue to plague the country and the world.

Nixon revealed the Soviet Union’s intention to attack Mao through the press, infuriating Brezhnev, who declared, “The United States has betrayed us!”

Mao Zedong was jolted awake by Nixon’s words and hastily began preparations for war, digging extensive underground fortifications and shifting to a state of high alert.

Before Nixon’s visit to Beijing in 1972, Lin Biao’s suicide attempt in September 1971 shocked the world and dealt a severe blow to Mao. He was deeply depressed. His doctor, Li Zhisui, revealed that Mao had been bedridden for four months, extremely weak. Knowing of Nixon’s impending visit was like a shot of adrenaline for him.

Was Mao Zedong worth Nixon’s help? Mao’s Anti-Rightist Movement persecuted 3 million intellectual elites; the Great Leap Forward and Great Famine of 1958 caused 50 million deaths; and the Cultural Revolution of 1966 plunged the country into chaos, resulting in the deaths of tens of millions more. The Chinese people wished Mao Zedong would die sooner.

Nixon presented Mao with a major gift: unconditional access to a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, the expulsion of Chiang Kai-shek’s Republic of China from the UN, and the recognition of only “One China.” Taiwan was included within “One China,” significantly diminishing its status. This was ostensibly a “uniting with China to contain the Soviet Union,” but in reality, it was mere rhetoric. Mao’s Cultural Revolution left him internally hollow and powerless against the Soviet Union; his “pulling China to fight the Soviet Union” strategy was fabricated. Mao scored 100 points on Nixon’s ice-breaking trip, while the United States gained almost nothing. Nixon’s outrageous “ice-breaking” act appeased the enemy while harming allies.

In his early years, Nixon, a staunch anti-communist, said, “If we lose the ideological battle, all weapons, treaties, trade, foreign aid, and cultural relations are meaningless.” Nixon’s salute and lavish gifts to Mao Zedong, without any ideological struggle, ironically proved his earlier assertion was “meaningless.” Decades of historical development proved Nixon’s argument “completely futile.”

X. Ford largely followed Nixon’s path, failing to effectively combat the CCP.

In December 1975, President Gerald Ford (1913-2006) visited China and met with Mao Zedong, accompanied by Kissinger, George H.W. Bush, and others. Ford said, “I will strengthen our new relationship with that great nation and maintain our position.” Ford’s struggle against the Communist Party was ineffective.

XI. Carter condoned Deng Xiaoping’s revival of Mao Zedong.

In 1979-1980, just as Jimmy Carter (1921-) was overseeing the formal establishment of diplomatic relations with the CCP, the CCP held a conference of 4,000 high-ranking cadres, plus over 1,000 high-ranking cadres studying at the Central Party School, totaling 5,500 high-ranking cadres who reviewed Mao Zedong’s mistakes and decided on future policies. Carter did not respond to the calls from the majority of high-ranking officials to negate and abandon Mao Zedong. At the time, even a slight support from Carter for Deng Xiaoping’s rejection of Mao would have had a huge impact. Deng Xiaoping needed too much from the United States, while the United States had no need of the CCP. Carter lacked the strategic vision for the struggle between the free world and world communism. Faced with Mao Zedong’s persecution of 3 million right-wing intellectuals in 1957, the man-made famine that killed 50 million people in 1961, and the Cultural Revolution that killed millions in 1966, Carter remained silent. He tacitly approved of Deng Xiaoping’s “Four Adherences,” the core of which was “adhering to Mao Zedong Thought” and “holding high the banner of Mao Zedong.” This stifled the strong calls from thousands of high-ranking CCP officials who represented the people of the whole country to abandon Mao Zedong. Under the four big sticks of Deng Xiaoping’s “Four Adherences,” Mao Zedong was resurrected, and the rejection of Mao Zedong, strongly supported by a large number of high-ranking officials such as Ye Jianying, Peng Zhen, Lu Dingyi, Luo Ruiqing, Hu Yaobang, and Zhou Yang, was suppressed.

After Mao’s death, Ye Jianying and others immediately arrested Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing. Jiang Qing, Mao’s designated successor, was tantamount to killing half of Mao Zedong. Deng Xiaoping forcibly separated Mao Zedong from Jiang Qing, refusing to negate Mao. This resurrection of Mao left a deep-seated problem that persists to this day.

Carter avoided addressing the crucial issue of abandoning Mao, yet demanded equality from Deng Xiaoping on minor matters, including printing Bibles and allowing missionaries to return to China. Deng Xiaoping only agreed to religious equality, not the return of missionaries.

Carter was a “yes-man,” a pushover, not a communist fighter. With his indulgence, Deng Xiaoping clung to Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong, this mountain weighing heavily on the heads of 1.4 billion people, remains so today. Carter failed in his crucial task of fighting communism.

XII. Reagan’s Condemnation of the Soviet Communist Party as an “Evil Empire” Contributed to the Collapse of the Soviet Union

Ronald Reagan (1911-2004) visited West Germany in 1987 and delivered his famous “Evil Empire” speech, condemning the Soviet Communist Party as an “evil empire,” which contributed to the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union. During his presidency from 1981 to 1988, Reagan relentlessly fought against communism. In 1986, he published “Freedom, Regional Security, and Global Peace,” proposing “Reaganism,” opposing the expansion of Soviet communist influence. The United States was prepared to contain communist expansion and push it back through “low-intensity warfare.” For American security, Reagan increased military spending to unprecedented levels.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said, “Reaganism declares the truce with communism over. We will wage a psychological war, providing material support to those fighting for freedom from communist tyranny.”

Reagan said, “The West will not tolerate communism. We will defeat communism. ‘Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!’” Reagan’s call led to the fall of the Berlin Wall; its collapse began in November 1989. In June 1990, the East German government announced its demolition.

Reagan, a former president of the Screen Actors Guild, was a natural-born anti-communist Republican. His secret service as an FBI agent further solidified his strong anti-communist stance.

Reagan was a natural humorist and optimist. In his first year in office, he was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt by a mentally unstable man; the bullet missed his heart by only 2.5 centimeters. Reagan told his wife, Nancy, who was watching him, “Darling, I forgot to dodge.” He told the doctors who operated on him to remove the bullet, “I hope you are all Republicans.” He always told jokes to the nurses who cared for him to cheer them up.

Reagan was inseparable from humorous cartoons every day, and his workday always began with reading the cartoons in the day’s newspaper, especially those featuring himself.

Reagan was strongly anti-Soviet, targeting the Soviet Union while ignoring the CCP. This, coupled with Deng Xiaoping’s policy of “keeping a low profile,” concealed his diplomatic ambitions. In fact, Deng Xiaoping said, “In the struggle against the US, we are willing to regress relations, even back to before Nixon’s visit to China in 1972.” Deng Xiaoping’s communist ideology in fighting the US was stronger than Reagan’s. Reagan’s leniency towards the CCP sowed the seeds of future trouble. Thirty years later, the CCP became the second largest economy, building an “electronic Berlin Wall,” confining 1.4 billion people within its “powerful nation”—an invisible “network wall” that awaits its dismantling. Reagan played a crucial role in the collapse of the Soviet empire, but he was ineffective in the struggle against the Chinese Communist Party.