Nixon's initiatives in foreign affairs dated back to the Eisenhower administration. As vice president, while escorting Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev through a model U.S. kitchen, he debated the merits of the two countries' political systems in what was termed the “kitchen debate.”

During his presidency, Nixon might have been slow to proceed with Vietnamese peace, but he was more adept at foreign affairs. He was the first president to meet with Communist leaders in Moscow and Beijing, signing trade agreements with both countries and a treaty with the USSR to limit the deployment of antiballistic missile systems. His secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, was an especially skilled diplomat, helping to establish strategic détente with both the Soviet Union and China.