China And Russia

Cartoon Diplomacy and more

With China and Russia on our minds today, I thought I’d look back in The New Yorker archives to see what I could find. I lived through part of the Russian Cold War, and Nixon’s visit to China (1972). The Cold War was a long thing, of course, but I do remember the year Nixon visited China, it was quite a big deal. If I could make a comparison, it would be like if Biden visited North Korea next week. China was such a mystery to us Americans (much more than now); the visit ended a 25 year span of lack of communication or diplomatic ties between the two countries.

I went back to see if The New Yorker printed any cartoons about that historic trip. In the first few issues I checked, in February of 1972, there was nothing. I expected to see a drawing on Nixon’s escapade by either James Stevenson or Dana Fradon, two artists who were known for their political drawings in The New Yorker. I saw this drawing below, looked at it and thought, what are they drinking? It’s a funny, subtle drawing by James Stevenson-but exactly why are these two conservative businessmen toasting in tiny glasses? They look like little vodka shots- but Nixon went to China, not the USSR (I was to travel to the USSR in 1976 as a student, and recall the little glasses, although I did not partake in the vodka).

Convinced Stevenson intended more meaning, I did some more online looking.

Almost immediately, I found this.

So in his drawing, Stevenson expressed what many were feeling at the time: we were toasting with China and this is probably a good thing. I adore the simplicity of content of his drawing, and how it works as commentary, but also as just a funny drawing.

Nixon will go down in history for being a crook, but also for re-establishing relations with China in 1972. Still communist, China has since become a capitalist hybrid. At the invitaion of the China Women’s Film Festival, I traveled to Bejing in 2018, to speak at…