COUNTERFACTUAL QUESTION: WHAT IF NIXON HAD NOT GONE TO CHINA?

COUNTERFACTUAL QUESTION: WHAT IF NIXON HAD NOT GONE TO CHINA?
Louis Menand has a review in the New Yorker for March 12 of NIXON AND MAO: THE WEEK THAT CHANGED THE WORLD by Margaret MacMillan. The subtitle comes from Nixon’s last toast in Shanghai on his trip to China. Menand says that Nixon’s trip to China “has earned almost universal respect” and that “At the time, the visit to China was often been compared to the landing on the moon….It seemed amazing that the thing could be done at all….” At the time—and now—I would answer the counterfactual question with a shrug. Resuming diplomatic relations between two countries happens all the time. Diplomatic relations are the norm. If Nixon hadn’t restored diplomatic relations, another President would have. And very little more happened besides restoration of diplomatic relations. Menand says, “…the tangible benefits to humankind [of Nixon’s visit] were not self-evident.” I would say that Nixon’s visit was indeed like the landing on the moon in that neither event had much effect on the lives of men.