Nixon News & Notes
The Geopolitics of Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon was one of the world’s foremost visionaries of global geopolitics. Between 1980 and 1994, the former American president wrote six volumes on international relations, all of which demonstrated his knowledge of history, grasp of international political realities, and insight into future trends in international politics.
The most insightful of those books were The Real War (1980) and Beyond Peace (1994). In The Real War, Nixon examined the geopolitical foundations of the Cold War and recommended policies that over the next eleven years led to the defeat and break-up of the Soviet Union. In Beyond Peace, he foresaw the U.S. pivot to Asia and the importance of the struggle within Islam to 21st century global politics.
When Nixon wrote The Real War, the Soviet Union was on the geopolitical offensive in the wake of America’s defeat in Indochina and the rise to power of President Jimmy Carter, who in his first major foreign policy address told Americans that they had an “inordinate fear of communism.” Soviet proxies gained power in Nicaragua, Grenada, Angola, Mozambique and South Yemen. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan to prop up a tottering friendly regime. The United States lost a key ally in Iran as the Shah fell and was replaced by a fundamentalist Islamic regime that held hostage U.S. embassy staffers and promoted a global Islamic revolution.
The strategic nuclear balance was shifting in the Soviet’s favor due to an emerging “first-strike” capability that threatened to undermine the U.S. strategy of extended deterrence.