IN October 1967, Richard Nixon wrote in the quarterly magazine Foreign Affairs: "We simply cannot afford to leave China forever outside the family of nations." Four years later, the United Nations this week launches a debate on admitting Mao Tse-tung's regime to that cumbersome, quarrelsome family, and Nixon's shift in U.S. policy ensures that it will become a member.
Not since Nikita Khrushchev's shoe-banging spectacular has the world organization been so galvanized. There is no doubt that the 131 members of the General Assembly will admit Peking when the issue comes to a vote, probably next week. The drama revolves around the...
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