A. DAVYDOV Candidate of Historical Sciences, Deputy Editor-in-chief of the journal "Problems of the Far East" A BIT OF HISTORY At the end of February 1972, an event occurred that was essentially significant, not only for its time, but also for the entire subsequent development of world history and international politics up to the present day. Visit of the then President of the United States, R. R. Tolkien. Nixon's visit to China, his meeting with Mao Zedong and the signing of the famous "Shanghai communique" contributed to the formation of a different geopolitical reality in the world compared to the past: the system of "balance of power"has replaced the bloc confrontation. Ideological confrontation gradually began to fade into the background, giving way more and more clearly to the struggle of competing national interests. According to some modern researchers, it was February 1972 that became the starting point of the process of disintegration of the bipolar system of the world. Whether this is true or not, many subsequent historical events should probably still be regarded as indirect consequences of that momentous visit. Its direct result was the beginning of normalization of relations between the two largest world powers - the United States and China. Since then, and to this day, these relations continue to have a major impact on the state of the global political and economic climate. During the second half of the twentieth century, relations between the United States of America and the People's Republic of China underwent radical changes. From outright hostility in the 1950s and careful "probing" of each other in the second half of the 1960s, through the Kissinger-Zhou Enlai ping-pong diplomacy in the early 1970s, they transformed into mutual diplomatic recognition and the establishment of strategic ties. At the same time, this movement was by no means straightforward. On the contrary, it was marked by a sharp zigzag pattern: from the American maneuvering betwe ... Read more