Current US policy on Russia and China spurs them to band together

The efforts in the 1970s by then US president Richard Nixon and his adviser, Henry Kissinger, to bring about a rapprochement with China and at the same time to ease tensions with the Soviet Union, has been hailed as a diplomatic masterstroke.

Exploiting the tensions between the two communist powers to its advantage, Washington was able to strengthen ties with both Beijing and Moscow, leading to the opening to China and détente with the Soviet Union. At the same time, the realpolitik road taken by President Nixon and Dr Kissinger helped produce tensions between Beijing and Russia and made it less likely that the two would gang together against Washington. Ironically, the policies being pursued tod…