The Grand Strategy of Detente

'Nixon goes to China' shattered the façade of Communist unity and dug the United States out of the hole it found itself in at the end of the 1960s. Critics have seen Nixon and Kissinger's policy as morally compromised, but was it actually the key to America's victory in the Cold War? Niall Ferguson is Philippe Roman Chair in History and International Affairs at LSE IDEAS for 2010-11.