The war in Vietnam was a dismal backdrop for Nixon and his plans for world affairs, and a new international order. Nixon believed that it was of utmost importance to adapt to the new "multipolar" world(international structure, in which China, Japan, and Western Europe became major, independent forces) as apposed to the old "bipolar" world (international structure, in which the United Stats and the Soviet Union were truly the only great powers). Nixon and Kissinger believed in a balance of power, to do so would require a change in assumptions of American foreign policy.
             More than twenty years had gone by since the fall of Chiang Kai-shek in 1949; the U.S. treated China as if it did not exist. America recognized the forlorn regime-in-exile in Taiwan as the government of mainland China. Nixon and Kissinger wanted to form new bonds with the Chinese communists as a counterbalance to the Soviet Union. The Chinese were eager for a Soviet-American alliance against China. In July 1971, Nixon sent Kissinger on a top priority and covert mission into Beijing, once he returned Nixon made the announcement that he was going to visit China. The United Nations admitted the communist government of China and expelled the representatives of the Taiwan regime. February 1972, Nixon visited China in attempt to erase some of the deep American animosity toward Chinese communists, yet he did not formally recognize the communist regime the United States and China began diplomatic relations in 1972. In 1969 the American and Soviet diplomats met in Helsinki, Finland, to begin talking about limiting nuclear weapons. 1972, SALT I was produced and it froze nuclear missiles (ICBMs), in May the president went to Moscow and signed the agreement.
             Rapprochement reflected Nixon and Kissinger's belief in the importance of stable relationships among the great powers, but these relationships could not ensure stabili
             ...