FUN WITH MAPS – ISSUE 2023-33 DAILY FEATURE:

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (February 21, 2023) – In today’s edition of Fun with Map from Steve Kovacs, we take a look at some diplomacy by a much-beleaguered President.

Tricky Dick

Richard Nixon, the 37th US President, was disgraced by the Watergate scandal; however, his achievements on the international stage remain unparalleled.

He reopened relationships with the Soviet Union and then with China.

After 25 years of total lack of diplomatic relationships, he landed in Beijing (then called Peking by many) on February 21, 1972, on a seven-day state tour.  He met with Chairman Mao multiple times.

This trip led to much closer ties between the US and China, at the expense of the Soviet Union. The wedge between the Soviet Union/Russia and China has lasted to this day (even with today’s Ukraine situation).  It delivered a, thus-far, lasting stalemate on the issue of Taiwan being independent or not, and it partly paved the way to the American withdrawal from Vietnam, a Chinese supported state.

The world would be a lot different today, and likely much worse off, without the efforts of Nixon and his Security Council Advisor, Henry Kissinger in the early 1970s.

Here is a province level map of China from the China Administrative Atlas issued by the CIA in 1969 (now declassified).

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Fun with Maps here on Loveland Beacon.